BT  215  .378 

Spurr,  Frederic  C.  1862- 
1942. 

Jesus  Christ  and  the  modern 
challenge _ _ 


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Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Modern  Challenge 


WORKS  BY 

Frederick  C.  Spurr 

President  National  Free  Church  Council^  England 


The  Master  Key 

A  Study  in  World  Problems 

A  fearless,  clearly-reasoned  restatement  of 
the  Christian  Gospel  as  it  relates  to  the  travail 
and  unrest  through  which  the  world  is  passing, 
of  which 

Harry  Emerson  Fosdick  says:  A  thoughtful,  sane, 
well-balanced  book — worth  reading.  .  $1.35 


Jesus  Christ  and  the 

Modern  Challenge 

Can  We  Still  Believe  in  His  Divinity? 

Mr.  Spurr  accepts  the  gage  of  battle  which 
modem  unbelief  has  thrown  down,  and  with 
great  skill  of  fence,  defends  the  priceless  pos¬ 
session  of  the  Christian  believer.  The  defense 
of  the  faith  is  presented,  and  made  to  stand  out 
irrefutably,  as  being  impervious  to  the  assaults 
of  present-day  unbelief  or  hostility.  .  $1.50 


Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Modern  Challenge 


CAN  WE  STILL  BELIEVE  IN 
HIS  DIVINITY? 


FREDERIC  C.  SPURR 

President  of  the  National  Council  of  Evangelical 
Free  Churches  {Great  Britain) 

Author  of  The  Master  Key  ” 


-■  >»' 

'  t 


ur 


\ 


30  1923 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1923,  by 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London :  2 1  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :  75  Princes  Street 


Foreword 


The  contents  of  this  book  were 
originally  delivered  as  Confer¬ 
ences  of  an  “  Apologetic  ”  charac¬ 
ter,  to  large  audiences  in  Great  Britain. 

All  of  the  chapters  have  been  considerably 
augmented — some  of  them  entirely  rewrit¬ 
ten.  They  are  offered  in  this  new  form  for  the 
consideration,  and  it  is  hoped,  the  encourage¬ 
ment  of  men  and  women,  who  are  perplexed 
by  the  religious  controversies  of  our  time, 
especially  with  respect  to  the  Person  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

F.  C.  S. 

Hamstead  Road  Church, 

Birmingham,  England, 


5 


\ 


/ 


Contents 

I.  The  Present  State  of  the  Question  .  9 

II.  “What  Manner  of  Man  Is  This?”  .  22 

III.  The  Triumph  of  the  Limitless  Lord  .  41 

IV.  The  Faith  of  the  Church  .  .  52 

V.  “The  Word  Was  Made  Flesh”  .  66 

VI.  “Born  of  the  Virgin  Mary”  .  ,  80 

VII.  “He  Rose  Again  the  Third  Day 

FROM  the  Dead  ”  .  .  *93 

VIII.  The  Spiritual  Implications  of  Christas 

Resurrection  .  .  .  .113 

IX.  “He  Ascended  Into  Heaven”  .  .130 

X.  The  Miracles  of  Jesus  .  ,  .146 

XI.  Jesus  Christ  the  Regenerator  of  the 

World  .....  163 

XII.  The  Evidence  of  Christian  Experience  .  188 

XIII.  The  Practical  Question — Will  Chris¬ 

tianity  “  Work  ”  To-day?  .  196 


7 


1 


THE  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE 
QUESTION 


CHRISTIANITY  is  wholly  unique 
amongst  the  religions  of  the  world. 
In  the  great  historic  religions  there  is 
always  a  definite  human  founder;  a  society 
which  enshrines  and  carries  out  his  ideas,  and  a 
set  of  doctrines  which  bind  together  the. dev¬ 
otees.  In  every  case  the  founder  belongs  to 
past  history.  He  appears  at  a  given  moment 
in  time  to  do  his  work  and  then  passes  away. 
His  followers  revere  his  memory,  but  none  of 
them  claims  that  he  is  now  alive,  the  divine 
soul  and  director  of  the  society  which  he 
created.  The  Jew  would  not  dream  of  claim¬ 
ing  this  for  Abraham  or  Moses,  nor  the 
Moslem  for  Mohammed,  nor  the  Buddhist  for 
Gautama.  Christianity  stands  quite  apart 
from  the  other  religions  of  the  world  in  virtue 
of  the  dominant  faith  that  its  founder  is 
Divine,  that  He  is  really  alive  and  operating  by 
means  of  His  Spirit  in  the  world  of  to-day,  that 
He  alone  is  the  Revealer  of  God  and  the  Re- 

9 


10  PRESENT  STATE  OP  THE  QUESTION 

deemer  of  mankind,  and  that  He  is  the  living 
soul  of  the  Church.  Christianity  rests  every¬ 
thing  upon  the  Person  of  Christ.  It  is  a  one- 
person  religion.  It  has  its  doctrines,  but  these 
depend  upon  Him,  It  thinks  of  God  as  He 
revealed  Him.  It  regards  man’s  sin  and  man’s 
salvation,  not  alone  in  the  light  of  human 
evolution,  but  supremely  in  the  light  of  Christ. 
“  Christianity  is  Christ.” 

The  Church’s  central  faith  in  Christ  has 
never  varied.  It  remains  to-day  what  it  was 
at  the  beginning.  Many  creeds  have  been  com¬ 
posed,  and  many  definitions  have  been  offered 
of  the  Person  of  Christ,  but  in  the  end  the 
faith  of  the  Church  always  returns  to  the 
simple  confession  My  Lord  and  my  God.” 
We  do  not  salute  Him  as  the  greatest  of  men, 
the  one  perfect  man  the  world  has  ever 
known  ” ;  we  fall  on  our  knees  and  worship 
Him  as  the  supreme  Lord  of  our  life,  ‘‘  the 
word  made  flesh,”  the  second  man,  the  Lord 
from  Heaven,”  ‘‘  Very  God  of  very  God.” 
The  Church  believes  that  our  Lord  claimed  to 
be  this,  and  reverently  accepts  as  the  absolute 
truth  His  word  “  without  me  ye  can  do  noth¬ 
ing.”  This  belief  in  Jesus  Christ  is  both  in¬ 
tellectual  and  inward:  of  the  mind  and  of  the 
soul.  Some  there  are,  mere  spectators  who 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION  11 

remain  outside  the  ring  and  know  nothing  of 
the  thrill  of  Christian  experience,  who  declare 
that  the  Church  worships  an  idealized  histor¬ 
ical  character.  But  it  is  the  uniform  experi¬ 
ence  of  all  who  have  fully  surrendered  them¬ 
selves  to  Him  that  He  is  a  living  Saviour,  who 
cleanses  the  conscience,  delivers  from  the 
power  of  sin,  and  brings  complete  salvation  to 
the  whole  life.  The  Christian  life  is  founded 
not  upon  metaphysics  nor  emotional  pictures, 
but  upon  an  actual  living  experience  of  the  re¬ 
generative  force  of  the  life  of  Christ  which 
flows  into  faithful  and  trusting  souls. 

That  there  are  difficulties  in  accepting  this 
central  faith  of  Christianity  is  a  matter  of 
common  experience.  These  arise  chiefly  from 
two  sources.  Modern  “  Criticism  ”  of  the 
Bible  is  one,  and  modern  Psychology  is  the 
other.  It  is  supposed  by  some  that  the  histor¬ 
ical  criticism  of  the  New  Testament  has  shaken 
to  its  foundations  the  ancient  belief  in  our 
Lord’s  Divinity.  Nothing  is  farther  from  the 
truth.  For  one  thing  a  very  clear  distinction 
must  be  drawn  between  that  “Criticism”  which 
confines  itself  to  its  proper  business,  and  rigidly 
adheres  to  the  way  of  truth  at  all  costs,  and 
that  miscalled  “  Criticism  ”  which,  starting 
with  undisguised  prejudice  against  religion  as  a 


12  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION 

whole,  and  the  Christian  religion  in  particular, 
manipulates  or  explains  the  Christian  facts  in 
accordance  with  certain  bigoted  and  unjustified 
preconceptions.  There  are  extreme  men  who 
suffer  from  an  obsession  so  acute  that  they  have 
lost  all  sense  of  perspective  and  proportion. 
They  merit  the  cutting  description  of  Dr. 
Marcus  Dods,  who  called  them  ‘‘  myth 
maniacs.”  These  extreme  men  may  be  left  to 
themselves;  time  will  deal  justly,  if  cruelly, 
with  them.  As  for  that  genuine,  scholarly  and 
reverent  “  Criticism  ”  which  set  itself  the 
necessary  task  of  examining,  as  history,  the 
records  of  the  New  Testament,  has  it  yet  estab¬ 
lished  a  single  finding  ”  which  in  the  least 
degree  affects  the  central  faith  of  the  Church? 
If  in  the  examination  of  miracles  ”  it  has 
classified  them,  has  it  succeeded  in  abolishing 
them?  Has  the  new  light  on  the  nature  of 
matter  done  anything  else  but  open  the  door  a 
little  wider  for  belief  in  the  supremacy  of 
spiritual  forces  over  material,  and  thus  bring 
within  the  range  of  credibility  the  mighty 
works”  of  Christ?  When  all  the  smoke  of 
battle  over  the  Synoptic  problem  and  that  of 
the  fourth  Gospel  has  died  down,  the  unique 
figure  of  our  Lord  remains  exactly  as  before. 
Historical  criticism  has  not  rid  us  of  Christ  as 
we  have  always  known  Him. 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION  13 

Neither  has  Psychology.  For  two  decades 
attempts  have  been  made  to  probe  to  the  inner 
consciousness  of  Christ,  to  rid  Him  of  all 

accretions  ’’  with  which  it  was  supposed  the 
centuries  had  encrusted  Him,  and  to  present 
Him  as  a  purely  human  figure  belonging  alone 
to  the  time  and  country  in  which  He  appeared. 
It  is  yet  too  early  to  say  what  will  be  the  final 
finding  of  Psychology  concerning  Jesus.  The 
process  is  yet  going  on  and  it  is  changing 
rapidly.  The  hour  for  dogmatic  statement 
has  by  no  means  arrived.  But  thus  far  it  is 
quite  clear  that  whatever  may  be  affirmed  con¬ 
cerning  the  “  human  limitations  ''  of  our  Lord’s 
earthly  life  and  the  implications  of  His  self¬ 
emptying,”  the  uniqueness  of  Christ  remains 
unchallenged  while  the  Divinity  of  Christ 
shines  forth  still  more  resplendent.  There  is 
no  reason,  therefore,  for  panic,  while  there  is 
every  reason  for  caution  and  the  exercise  of 
cool  judgment  upon  new  explorations  which 
incline  toward  speed  rather  than  toward 
security. 

But  Christianity  is  not  only  a  faith,  it  is  also 
a  propaganda.  It  is  out  to  conquer  the  world 
for  Christ.  It  is  not  blind  to  whatever  truth 
there  may  be  in  other  religions;  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  it  increasingly  recognizes  that  truth,  but 
it  knows  also  that  this  truth  is  mixed  with 


14  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION 

deadly  error  which  vitiates  it  and  also  that  it 
can  never  “  arrive  ”  apart  from  Christ.  Christ 
alone,  it  unceasingly  affirms,  can  purge  the 
world  of  error  (as  of  sin)  and  give  complete¬ 
ness  to  truth  which  apart  from  Him  must  ever 
remain  dwarfed  and  ineffective.  It  is  when 
the  Gospel  becomes  propagandist  that  it  en¬ 
counters  opposition.  The  Early  Church  would 
never  have  been  persecuted  had  the  Christians 
been  content  to  hug  their  faith  as  a  personal 
boon  to  be  enjoyed  in  private.  But  the  divine 
“  urge  was  upon  them  as  it  must  be  upon 
every  true  believer,  and  they  went  out  to  con¬ 
quer  for  Christ.  It  was  this  that  brought  them 
into  conflict  with  the  authorities  and  opened  the 
way  to  prison  and  to  death.  It  is  this  also  that 
uncovers  the  guns  of  Rationalism  to-day. 

The  proclamation  of  the  Divinity  of  our 
Lord  has  always  excited  the  opposition  of  the 
world.  First  of  all — and  nearest  in  time  to 
Christ — came  the  Jewish  assault.  Then  fol¬ 
lowed  the  Gnostic  attack  in  the  second  and 
third  centuries.  Then  the  attack  of  the  Van¬ 
dals.  Later  came  the  Mohammedan  opposi¬ 
tion — the  most  serious  that  history  has  known 
— and  finally  the  modern  Rationalistic  attack, 
which  dates  from  the  eighteenth  century  and 
which  now  approaches  its  climax.  The  form 
of  these  assaults  has  varied.  Sometimes  they 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION  15 

have  been  brutal ;  sometimes  exceedingly  polite 
and  brilliantly  conducted.  But  the  fact  remains 
that  the  opposition  has  endured  for  nearly  two 
thousand  years,  which  in  itself  is  a  magnificent 
advertisement  of  the  vitality  of  the  Christian 
belief.  Men  do  not  strike  the  dead,  nor  spend 
their  strength  in  destroying  things  which  are 
obviously  impotent. 

The  newest  form  of  the  modern  opposition 
has  a  character  of  its  own.  No  longer  do  men 
say  that  Jesus  is  not  Divine:  they  declare  that 
we  are  more  Divine.  Thus  the  attempt  is  made 
to  lessen  the  distance  between  Jesus  and  our¬ 
selves.  Divinity,  it  is  affirmed,  is  simply  a 
question  of  degree.  Jesus  Christ  occupies  the 
front  rank,  and  we  the  lower  rank ;  yet  we  are 
all  in  the  same  file — He  at  one  end  and  we  at 
the  other.  The  stream  of  Christian  doctrine, 
so  far  as  it  concerns  the  Person  of  Christ,  is, 
we  are  told,  not  absolutely  pure.  The  Church 
has  defiled  it  with  man-made  dogmas  which 
have  destroyed  its  beauty  and  truth.  Our  ef¬ 
fort,  it  is  claimed,  is  to  try  and  cleanse  that 
defiled  current  and  so  bring  Jesus  into  our  own 
category. 

These  and  similar  things  perplex  the  aver¬ 
age  person  to-day.  He  reads  fragmentary  re¬ 
prints  in  the  newspapers  which  attribute  to 
avowed  Christian  leaders  a  scepticism  which 


16  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION 

appals  and  unsettles  him.  He  has  been  given 
to  understand  that  “  scientific  criticism  ”  of  the 
Bible  has  finally  made  impossible  belief  in  the 
Deity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Hence  he  is 
befogged.  On  the  one  hand,  he  hears  an  age¬ 
long  proclamation  of  the  Christian  faith  which 
makes  everything  of  the  Divine  Person  of 
Christ.  On  the  other,  he  hears  many  modern 
voices  which  dissolve  the  ancient  faith  into  un¬ 
defined  vapour.  What  is  he  to  believe  ?  It  is 
my  purpose  frankly  to  face  the  question  of  the 
Person  of  our  Lord  and  to  pursue  a  line  of 
inquiry  the  result  of  which  will  be — it  is  con¬ 
fidently  hoped — to  give  new  courage  to  be¬ 
lieving  men  and  women,  and  to  recover  some 
who  have  become  enveloped  in  the  fog  of 
doubt — that  together  these  may  kneel  anew  be¬ 
fore  the  Redeemer  and  repeat  from  the  heart 
the  ancient  confession  “  My  Lord  and  my 
God.’’  In  a  word  that  while  the  mind  may  be 
increasingly  open  to  all  light  and  knowledge 
from  every  quarter,  yet  the  ancient  faith  may 
be  held  unimpaired  in  the  plenitude  of  the  in¬ 
tellect  and  of  the  heart,  and  with  no  sense  of 
clash  between  the  old  and  the  new. 

Four  decades  ago,  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale,  then  in 
the  plenitude  of  his  splendid  powers,  pre¬ 
dicted  that  the  day  would  soon  arrive  when  the 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION  17 

greatest  battle  of  the  Christian  Church  would 
have  to  be  fought,  and  that  this  battle  would 
gather  not  around  the  documents  of  the  Bible, 
but  around  the  Divine  Person  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  The  event  has  proved  the  cor¬ 
rectness  of  Dr.  Dale’s  insight.  We  are  at  the 
present  moment  in  the  heat  of  that  battle.  It 
has  been  gathering  force  for  nearly  a  century 
ever  since  the  days  of  the  Tubingen  outburst. 
Less  than  twenty  years  ago  Dr.  Schweitzer  is¬ 
sued  a  work  which  in  English  bears  the  title 
“  The  Quest  of  the  Historical  Jesus.”  It  is  the 
story  of  the  growing  Rationalistic  attack  upon 
the  Person  of  Christ.  The  Dean  of  St.  Paul’s 
described  the  book  as  ‘‘  blasphemous,”  but  Dr. 
Schweitzer  rendered  to  the  world  at  least  one 
service  by  its  publication:  he  showed  to  what 
amazing  lengths  of  folly  and  utter  contradic¬ 
tion  Rationalism  has  gone  in  its  attack  upon 
the  central  faith  of  the  Gospel.  He  brought 
together  in  one  volume  all  the  theories  in¬ 
dulged  in  by  Rationalism  during  the  last  two 
hundred  years  to  account  for  our  Lord  in 
what  is  claimed  to  be  a  rational  ”  manner. 
And  it  is  only  when  the  story  of  the  whole 
effort  is  thus  placed  before  us,  that  we  clearly 
perceive  how  utterly  unscientific  and  unhistoric 
is  this  particular  Rationalistic  method.  For 
nearly  every  man  who  has  essayed  to  account 


t 


18  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION 

for  Christ  on  ‘‘  naturalistic  ”  grounds  seems  to 
have  distinguished  himself  in  one  way  only: 
he  has  invented  a  theory  in  opposition  to  that 
of  his  fellow  Rationalists^ — that  is  all.  And  so 
the  spectacle  is  offered  of  a  number  of  men  who 
set  out  to  slay  One  whom  they  deem  to  be 
their  common  enemy,  and  end  by  slaughtering 
each  other. 

What  kind  of  a  Christ  has  Rationalism  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  offering  to  the  world  ?  The  truth  is 
that  each  school  has  its  own  theory  and  the 
resultant  is  amazing.  To  one  school  He  is  a 
pure  myth:  to  others  He  is  a  mere  figure  of 
history — a  Jew  of  His  time — whose  brief 
thirty  years  hold  all  of  His  career.  To 
another  He  is  a  shadowy  phantom  which  we 
perceive  as  in  a  mist.  To  another,  He  never 
existed  at  all.  To  yet  another  the  story  of  His 
life  is  merely  the  few  pages  of  the  work  of  a 
religious  novelist.  Now  with  such  a  jumble 
of  results  all  reached  in  the  name  of  the 

scientific  method  ”  we  have  the  right  to  say 
that  the  obscurity  with  which  His  sacred  figure 
has  been  surrounded  is  certainly  not  due  to 
Him,  but  to  the  Rationalistic  unscientific 
method  of  treating  history.  A  method  which 
results  in  such  a  medley  of  contradictions 
stands  self-condemned.  Not  one  of  the  Ra¬ 
tionalistic  theories,  or  all  of  them  together, 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION  19 

account  in  the  least  degree  for  Him  who  is 
the  life  of  the  Church,  and  in  spite  of  His 
foes,  the  Master  of  the  world.  If  He  were 
not  so  central  in  human  life,  why  all  this 
trouble  to  dispossess  Him.^  How  is  it  that 
Christ  alone  of  all  the  teachers  is  subject  to  this 
incessant  attack  ?  The  same  critics  who  labour 
assiduously  to  dislodge  Christ  Jesus  from 
His  throne  leave  severely  alone  Buddha,  Con¬ 
fucius  and  Mohammed.  Why  is  Jesus  singled 
out  for  their  weapons?  Is  it  that  He  of  all  is 
dreaded  and  that  His  kingdom  which  must  be 
supreme  or  nothing  is  hated  by  men  who  be¬ 
lieve  in  the  “  superman  of  force  and  who  can¬ 
not  therefore  endure  the  Gospel  of  love  and 
that  of  obedience  to  our  sole  Divine  Master? 

We  may  not  always  judge,  but  it  is  signifi¬ 
cant  that  Dr.  Schweitzer,  in  the  work  already 
cited,  makes  the  startling  admission  that  many 
of  the  so-called  “  lives  of  Christ  produced  in 
his  country  (Germany)  have  been  written  from 
hatred.  How  can  hatred  ever  arrive  at  the 
truth  concerning  the  perfect  Law  and  Life — 
the  Lover  and  Redeemer  of  our  souls  ?  Hatred 
blinds  and  perverts.  And  with  this  qualifica¬ 
tion  men  sit  down  to  write  the  life  of  Him 
who  is  eternal  love !  Is  it  surprising  that  they 
fail  to  understand  it?  Only  love  understands 
love.  And  even  where  there  is  no  hatred,  but 


20  PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION 

simply  a  critical  spirit,  there  can  be  no  under¬ 
standing  of  Christ.  The  proud  still  are  sent 
empty  away:  the  humble  and  meek  alone  are 
admitted  to  the  Great  Secret.  The  self-suf¬ 
ficient  think  they  do  not  need  Him;  they  are 
chastised  for  their  pride  by  an  inability  to 
understand  Him.  But  where  the  sinner  seeks 
for  redemption,  and  weakness  appeals  for 
Divine  Strength,  there  Christ  appears  to  save 
and  bless.  To  the  one  class  Christ  will  ever 
appear  enveloped  in  a  mist:  to  the  other  He  is 
the  Light  of  Life. 

‘‘  What  think  ye  of  Christ?  ”  It  is  the  test 
question  for  us  all.  He  is  either  a  temporal 
being  whose  life  like  that  of  the  rest  of  men 
was  fatally  circumscribed  within  the  limits  of 
a  transitory  human  existence,  or  He  is  the 
Eternal  Son — the  Christ  of  God  whose  exist¬ 
ence  preceded  Bethlehem  and  outlived  Calvary. 
If  the  former,  then  He  was  simply  a  man  who 
established  a  religious  system  from  which,  in 
due  time,  death  severed  Him,  and  over  which 
He  has  at  present  no  power  save  that  of  a 
mythical  and  shadowy  influence.”  Being  a 
man,  this  system  is  human  and  subject  to  all 
the  fluctuations  and  emendations  of  human 
productions.  His  ethic  may  therefore  be  sur¬ 
passed  as  humanity  develops,  and  finally 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  QUESTION  21 

Christianity  may  cease  to  be,  or  His  connec¬ 
tion  with  it  will  be  no  more  than  that  of  one 
who  long  ago  initiated  a  human  religion  which 
His  followers  have  so  altered  that  it  is  no 
longer  His.  But  if  He  is  what  the  Church  has 
ever  affirmed  Him  to  be,  the  Divine  Word^  the 
one  authentic  Revelation  of  the  Father,  then 
human  life  lies  in  a  special  relation  to  Him. 
He  becomes,  not  only  its  Saviour,  but  its 
Judge.  Humanity  is  true  or  false  as  it  follows 
or  rejects  Him  and  its  fate  is  determined 
according  to  its  choice  or  rejection. 

It  makes  all  the  difference  imaginable 
whether  or  not  Jesus  is  the  last  word  of  God  to 
man.  Thousands  have  practically  decided  that 
He  is  not,  hence  they  resort  to  spirits  that  peep 
and  mutter  or  invent  new  religions,  or  become 
Epicureans,  eating  and  drinking  to-day  with 
naught  but  death  to  follow  to-morrow,  or  fall 
to  the  law  of  the  jungle  and  revert  to  the  beast. 
The  world  by  common  consent  is  in  a  desperate 
plight  to-day.  It  owes  its  misery  to  the  fact 
that  it  has  rejected  Christ  as  its  King  and  Re¬ 
deemer.  Not  until  it  crowns  Him  as  Lord  of 
all  will  it  become  its  true  self.  The  primary 
need,  therefore,  of  the  Church  in  this  age  is  to 
reaffirm  the  truth,  with  all  its  implications  for 
human  life,  of  the  Divinity  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ — the  world’s  only  true  Master. 


II 


“  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ? 


OGICIANS  admit  two  great  methods 
of  demonstrating  the  truth  of  any 


^  proposition:  the  inductive  and  the  de¬ 
ductive.  The  first  deals  with  palpable  facts  and 
seeks  their  natural  causes  or  principles;  the 
second  commences  with  the  principles  and  then 
searches  for  corresponding  results,  applying 
the  general  law  to  particular  cases.  I  propose 
now  in  considering  the  Person  of  Christ  to  fol¬ 
low  the  inductive  method,  marshalling  incon¬ 
trovertible  facts  and  then  demanding  of  these 
their  radical  and  unique  explanation.  For  the 
audience  that  I  have  in  view  this  method  is 
preferable  to  that  of  beginning  with  “  proof 
texts.’’  These  will  not  be  overlooked.  We 
shall  end  with  them. 

We  may  begin  with  three  indisputable  facts. 
First,  it  is  undoubted  that  the  human  setting 
of  Jesus  was  of  the  lowliest.  His  mother  was 
so  poor  that  on  the  day  of  the  purification, 
when  the  law  demanded  of  her  an  offering  in 
the  temple,  she  could  afford  only  the  least  per- 


22 


WHAT  MANNER  OP  MAN  IS  THIS  ?  23 


missible  gift — a  pair  of  doves.  Our  Lord, 
humanly  speaKing,  had  no  social  prestige.  He 
was  not  born  in  the  purple  but  in  poverty. 
His  neighbours,  staggered  at  His  knowledge, 
mentioned  that  He  had  not  been  trained  in  the 
schools.  He  was  a  working  carpenter,  and,  so 
far  as  we  know,  He  was  untravelled.  He  never 
left  Palestine.  We  are  speaking  of  Him  as 
men,  unillumined,  saw  Him.  Secondly,  the 
public  life  of  Jesus  was  of  the  simplest  char¬ 
acter.  He  lived  in  the  full  public  light  for 
nearly  three  years.  He  left  no  writing  behind 
Him.  His  style  of  teaching  was  the  essence 
of  simplicity.  He  did  not  usually  reason  with 
His  audiences  and  He  proclaimed  no  philos¬ 
ophy.  His  method  was  popular.  He  spake  ” 
to  the  people  in  the  way  of  familiar  conversa¬ 
tion,  conveying  His  teaching  largely  by  means 
of  parables.  And  at  an  early  age — after  less 
than  three  years  of  public  ministry — He  was 
crucified  by  His  enemies,  a  method  of  death 
which  was  diabolically  cruel  and  was  reserved 
for  criminals.  There  is  no  disputing  the  facts. 
Again  we  are  speaking  of  Him  as  men,  unil¬ 
lumined,  saw  Him.  The  third  fact  is  that  the 
influence  of  Jesus  in  the  world  has  been 
absolutely  unparalleled.  No  one  has  ever 
divided  the  world  like  Jesus  Christ.  No  one 
has  been  or  is  so  bitterly  hated  or  so  passion- 


24  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS! 


ately  loved  as  He.  He  has  captured  the  fore¬ 
most  nations  of  the  world.  The  progressive 
peoples  are  Christians.  None  dare  apologize 
for  all  that  has  been  done  in  the  Christian 
name,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  foremost 
nations  of  the  world  are  those  that  bear  the 
name  of  Christ.  Even  those  who  would  de¬ 
prive  Him  of  His  crown  of  Deity  have  paid 
Him  a  wholly  exceptional  homage,  rising  at 
times  to  panegyric.  Ernest  Renan  was  com¬ 
pelled  to  say  of  Him,  ‘‘  He  is  in  every  respect 
unique,  and  nothing  can  be  compared  with  Him 
— He  will  never  be  surpassed.’’  Friedrich 
Strauss  in  his  fanciful  life  of  Jesus  has  to  ad¬ 
mit  that  ‘‘  It  will  never  be  possible  to  rise  above 
Him,  or  to  conceive  of  any  equal  to  Him.” 
Theodore  Parker,  the  most  advanced  Unitarian 
of  his  day,  asked,  What  man,  what  century, 
has  surpassed  His  thought  ?  ”  Men  who  have 
broken  with  every  evangelical  truth  have 
united  in  ascribing  to  Jesus  an  absolute  su¬ 
premacy  and  yet  they  have  denied  His  Deity. 
Why  is  this?  We  shall  return  to  this  point  in 
due  course. 

Meanwhile  the  logic  of  the  situation  lies  in 
this,  that  those  who  attribute  His  supreme  ex¬ 
cellence  to  mere  human  sources,  aim  a  blow 
both  at  God  and  at  man.  At  God,  for  tanta- 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS?  25 


lizing  the  human  race  by  creating  but  one  being 
capable  of  rising  to  the  highest  perfection:  at 
man,  for  his  degradation  in  failing  to  rise  to 
the  height  of  another  man  who  climbed  to  the 
summit.  This  is  the  unescapable  logic  of 
claiming  for  Jesus  the  greatest  human  perfec¬ 
tion  and  yet  attributing  it  to  a  man’s  natural 
powers.  If  it  is  true,  as  Dr.  Stopford  Brooke 
said  when  he  left  the  Church  of  England  that 
“  Christ  reached  His  high  excellence  as  a  man 
and  by  a  man’s  power,”  then  we  are  compelled 
to  ask  where  is  another  man  who  has  reached 
this  altitude?  Why  should  He  remain  alone? 
What  is  the  matter  with  the  human  race  that 
one  only  of  its  number  has  been  able  to  scale 
the  mountain  ?  “  What  man  has  done  man  can 

do.”  Why  then  does  no  other  man  do  what 
Jesus  did?  The  question  must  be  faced.  The 
humanitarian  view  of  Christ  does  not  in  any 
satisfactory  way  account  for  Him.  We  are 
leaving  alone  for  the  time  the  direct  claim  that 
He  made  for  Himself  and  that  His  disciples 
made  for  Him — that  is  to  fpllow.  We  confine 
ourselves  entirely  to  the  inductive  method. 
His  human  origin  and  setting  were  of  the 
lowliest:  His  life  and  teachings  were  of  the 
simplest,  and  yet  His  age-long  influence  has 
been  and  is  unparalleled.  This  must  be  ac¬ 
counted  for  and  that  adequately. 


26  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ? 


One  day,  the  Gospels  tell  us,  when  Jesus  and 
the  disciples  were  crossing  the  lake  of  Galilee 
in  a  little  boat,  a  violent  squall  sprang  up, 
threatening  the  lives  of  the  little  crew.  Jesus 
was  so  tired  out  that  He  had  fallen  into  a  pro¬ 
found  sleep.  The  disciples  had  to  waken  Him 
and  then,  speaking  to  the  storm.  He  said, 
“  Peace  be  still  ”  and  immediately  there  was  a 
great  calm.  The  rough  boatmen,  astounded, 
cried,  What  manner  of  man  is  this?  That 
He  was  a  man  there  could  be  no  doubt.  A 
moment  earlier  He  lay  tired  out  and  asleep. 
Now  He  is  seen  to  be  Master  of  the  storm. 
There  was  a  plus  in  Him  for  which  they  could 
not  account.  And  it  is  just  that  plus  we  must 
face.  It  is  the  distinctive  thing  in  Him.  It 
impressed  the  rough  boatmen,  but  it  has  also 
impressed  everybody  else  from  that  hour  until 
the  present.  Pontius  Pilate  quailed  before  it. 
The  Church  worships  before  it.  It  is  the  plus 
in  Christ  that  is  the  age-long  puzzle  of  the 
critic  and  the  age-long  joy  of  the  Christian. 
The  Jesus  of  the  Gospels,  the  Jesus  of  history 
— is  thoroughly  human.  Everywhere  upon 
the  Gospel  page  we  encounter  the  figure  of  a 
real  man.  The  New  Testament  never  attempts 
to  do  what  certain  first  century  philosophers 
essayed — to  treat  the  humanity  as  unreal.  On 
the  contrary  it  emphasizes  that  humanity  in 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ?  27 


the  most  pronounced  manner.  “  In  all  things 
he  was  tempted  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin.” 
And  yet  without  the  least  clash  or  sense  of  in¬ 
congruity,  they  who  tell  the  story  of  His 
humanity  are  the  very  people  who  speak  of 
Him  as  their  “  Lord  and  their  God,”  who  de¬ 
clare  that  He  came  down  from  heaven;  that 
He  is  the  one  and  only  authentic  revelation  of 
the  Father.  They  found  the  plus  in  the  fact 
of  our  Lord’s  Deity.  But  I  am  anticipating. 
Let  us  still  keep  to  the  inductive  method. 

There  are  three  points  to  which  especial  at¬ 
tention  must  be  directed  and  these  involve  an 
analysis  of  the  personality  of  our  Lord.  With 
the  profoundest  reverence  the  task  is  under¬ 
taken.  First  we  think  of  the  intellect  of 
Jesus.  It  is  partly  as  a  teacher  that  He  ap¬ 
peared,  and  it  is  mainly  as  a  teacher  that  many 
think  of  Him  to-day.  For  us  who  are  His 
disciples  this  view  of  Him  is  by  no  means  suf¬ 
ficient,  but  it  is  part  of  the  truth  concerning 
Him.  He  was,  then,  a  teacher,  and  by  general 
admission  the  Supreme  Teacher.  His  con¬ 
temporaries  were  astonished  at  h’s  doc¬ 
trine.”  The  police  of  the  temple  who  were 
sent  to  silence  Him  returned  to  their  masters 
empty-handed,  declaring  they  could  not  arrest 
Him ;  His  word  had  conquered  them ;  never 


28  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS? 


man  spake  like  this  man/’  For  two  thousand 
years  men  have  repeated  that  encomium. 
With  the  exception  of  a  handful  of  secularists 
who,  like  the  famous  Tooley  Street  tailors, 
imagine  that  they  are  the  people  of  England,” 
the  civilized  world  of  Christendom,  whether 
loving  Jesus  or  not,  repeats  that  word  ‘‘never 
man  spake  like  this  man.”  Time  has  not  di¬ 
minished,  it  has  but  augumented  the  Divine 
force  of  His  Word.  But  to  understand  the 
uniqueness  of  our  Lord’s  teaching,  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  to  examine  it  carefully.  What  are  its 
characteristics  ? 

First,  it  is  superlative.  He  said  the  highest 
thing  and  He  said  it  finally.  That  perfect 
drama  of  human  sin  and  return  to  God  is  set 
forth  in  a  story  which  can  be  read  in  five 
minutes.  But  who  else  has  ever  said  all  in  so 
small  a  space  as  Jesus  did  in  the  story  of  the 
Prodigal  Son?  In  the  Pater  Noster  our  Lord 
has  compressed  the  whole  science  and  mystery 
of  prayer  into  eight  sentences.  And  so  it  is 
with  all  else  He  said.  He  strikes  ever  the  final 
note.  When  He  speaks  of  a  thing  there  is 
nothing  more  to  be  said.  A  second  character¬ 
istic  is  that  it  is  illuminative  and  not  logical. 
Human  teachers  reason,  argue,  convince;  they 
must  “  prove  ”  their  case.  Our  Lord  never 
did  this.  He  said,  “  I  say  unto  you,”  and  when 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ?  29 


He  said  it  men  saw  that  it  was  so.  His  words 

were  as  light:  they  carried  with  them  their 

own  authenticity.  A  third  characteristic  is 

penetrativeness.  Jesus  always  went  to  the 

heart  of  things.  Others  condemned  the  sinful 

act,  He  condemned  the  motive  and  the  thought. 

Anger  with  our  brother  without  cause  is 

murder.  The  lustful  thought  is  adultery.  It 
$ 

is  in  the  heart  man  is  right  or  wrong,  He  says. 
Hence  His  great  word,  “Ye  must  be  born 
again.”  A  fourth  characteristic  is  the  personal 
authority  of  His  word.  Other  teachers  quote 
authorities  or  support  themselves  upon  prin¬ 
ciples.  No  man  dare  face  an  audience  and 
offer  his  own  personal  dictum  upon  any  great 
subject  as  the  last  word  of  authority.  But 
Jesus  did.  His  “  I  say  unto  you  ”  was  final. 
He  was  His  own  authority.  And  the  world 
knows  He  was  right.  There  are  more  people 
than  ever  now  engaged  upon  the  task  of  try¬ 
ing,  as  they  think,  to  discover  what  He  meant 
for  the  world.  And  the  astonishing  (and 
challenging)  thing  is  that  amongst  these  are 
large  numbers  of  people  who  have  no  relation¬ 
ship  with  His  Church,  nor  fellowship  with  His 
people. 

A  final  characteristic  is  the  perpetuity  of  His 
teaching.  He  spake  to  all  peoples  and  to  all 
time.  His  word  is  timeless.  It  is  as  fresh 


30  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ? 


and  binding  to-day  as  ever  it  was.  It  is  not 
and  cannot  be  outgrown,  His  enemies  being 
witnesses.  Heaven  and  earth  will  pass  away. 
His  word  will  never  pass  away.  He  is  the  one 
Teacher  whose  doctrine  never  needs  correction ; 
whose  word  satisfies  human  need  to  the  end  of 
time.  Thus,  all  too  briefly,  we  have  glanced 
at  the  intellect  of  Jesus  and  at  the  character  of 
His  teaching.  It  is  wholly  unique.  But  if  it 
is  only  the  teaching  of  a  man  how  can  we  ac¬ 
count  fpr  it?  We  have  again  to  ask  “What 
manner  of  man  is  this?”  And  again  we  are 
driven  to  the  plus  to  account  for  Him. 

But  there  is  more  in  Jesus  than  the  intellect 
of  the  teacher.  There  is  the  heart  of  Jesus  to 
be  considered.  The  heart  is  greater  than  the 
intellect,  as  Pascal  said:  it  has  its  reasons  of 
which  the  reason  knows  nothing.  The  world 
has  known  many  brilliant  teachers,  even  re¬ 
ligious  teachers,  whose  intellects  have  scintil¬ 
lated,  but  whose  hearts  are  cold  and  repellent. 
How  few  indeed  possess  anything  like  an  equi¬ 
poise  between  heart  and  brain !  But  behold  the 
heart  of  Jesus — it  is  as  perfect  as  His  mind. 
He  was  the  most  popular  figure  in  the  country, 
so  popular  that  the  people  desired  to  make  Him 
King.  And  how  did  He  deport  Himself? 
The  individual  to  Him  was  equally  precious  as 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ?  31 


the  crowd.  From  addressing  the  multitude  He 
turns  directly  to  heal  a  solitary  leper — an  exile 
from  society.  Fresh  from  a  crowded  syna¬ 
gogue  He  enters  Simon  Peter’s  home  and  re¬ 
stores  to  health  a  sick  woman.  For  the 
daughter  of  the  ruler  He  has  the  beautiful 
word:  “My  little  darling,  arise.”  He  gave 
His  best  to  the  very  worst.  Most  great 
teachers  reserve  their  best  for  the  best.  Jesus 
never  reserved  His  pearls  for  the  elite.  To  the 
ignorant  woman  of  Samaria  He  disclosed  the 
truth  that  “  God  is  Spirit.”  For  lost  women 
He  had  the  Gospel  of  spiritual  and  social  re¬ 
demption,  and  to  one  of  them  He  addressed 
one  of  the  greatest  of  His  discourses.  For  all 
the  needy  He  had  compassion;  for  all  the  dis¬ 
inherited,  courtesy  and  the  message  of  hope. 

He  brought  into  one  fellowship  a  Bolshevist 
(Simon  the  Zealot)  and  the  man  Simon  hated 
(Matthew  the  tax-farmer).  And,  miracle  of 
miracles,  he  brought  together  into  His  own  and 
their  own  fellowship  two  typical  women  whom 
society  forever  separates:  Joanna  the  wife  of 
Herod’s  steward — the  lady  of  the  North — and 
Mary  Magdalene  “  out  of  whom  had  gone 
seven  devils.”  Who  else  could  have  brought 
into  one  real  sisterhood  two  women  such  as 
these?  To  the  man  who  “  found  hell  about 
his  lips  ” — Judas  Iscariot — our  Lord  has  only 


32  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ? 

the  word  “  friend  ”  to  utter.  For  the  city  that 
rejected  Him,  He  has  only  the  scalding  tears 
of  Divine  compassion.  To  that  Apostle  who, 
under  the  pressure  of  fear,  denied  Him  thrice 
with  oaths  and  curses,  Christ  makes  the  answer 
of  a  reproachful  and  loving  look,  which  three 
days  later  is  confirmed  by  a  special  interview 
and  a  particular  forgiveness,  and  later  still  by 
a  restored  Commission,  For  children  He  had 
a  special  affection.  He  made  them  the  model 
for  His  disciples,  and  became  forevermore 
their  chief  patron  and  friend.  His  word 
“  suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me  and 
forbid  them  not has  become  the  charter  of 
the  emancipation  of  childhood  for  all  time. 

Such  then  was  the  heart  of  Jesus.  Few 
public  men  can  bear  the  test  of  popularity. 
Men  who  can  command  the  crowd  are  often 
impatient  with  the  individual.  But  Jesus  loved 
all.  What  manner  of  man  is  this?  And  once 
more  we  are  driven  to  the  plus  to  account  for 
Him. 

But  there  is  a  deeper  region  still  for  us  to 
enter.  It  is  the  most  sacred  of  all — it  is  His 
holiness.  The  world  has  known  many  great 
and  good  men  brilliant  in  intellect  and  great  in 
soul:  it  has  known  but  one  sinless  man.  The 
best  men  have  always  acknowledged  a  great 
abyss  between  themselves  and  Jesus  Christ. 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ?  33 


Dr.  Charming,  Unitarian  by  label  and  Christian 
in  spirit,  declared  that  Jesus  puts  in  the  shade 
all  human  perfection.”  And  that  is  the  verdict 
of  the  humanity  which  knows  Him.  The 
notion  of  sinlessness  was  not  in  the  world  until 
Jesus  came.  It  was  derived,  not  from  any 
philosophical  speculation,  but  from  the  actual 
fact  of  Christ  Himself,  in  whose  person  the 
idea  was  realized.  Which  of  you  convinceth 
me  of  sin?  ”  was  His  challenge,  and  it  remains 
unanswered.  Those  who,  in  the  days  of  His 
flesh,  knew  Him  most  intimately  were  the  first 
to  declare  that  “  He  was  without  sin,  neither 
was  guile  found  in  his  mouth.”  Before  His 
Holiness  all  heads  bow.  “  He  is  the  Saint,  the 
one  perfect  man,”  said  Goethe. — To  understand 
what  this  means,  however,  it  is  necessary  to 
enquire  what  we  mean  by  holiness.  In  Christ 
was  not  merely  the  absence  of  evil  qualities, 
there  was  the  presence  of  perfect  qualities  in 
all  the  regions  of  life.  Holiness  is  a  positive 
quality,  and  it  may  he  defined  as  consisting  in 
the  perfect  relation  of  man  to  God,  to  himself 
and  to  his  fellows. 

What  was  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  God? 
Viewed  on  the  negative  side,  it  consisted  in  an 
entire  absence  of  anything  like  disharmony, 
rupture,  incompleteness,  or  the  sense  of  sin  in 
any  form. — Jesus  never  made  confession  of  sin 


34  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS? 


to  the  Father.  He  offered  no  apology  for  any 
word,  or  thought  or  deed  of  His.  He  taught 
His  disciples  in  their  prayers  to  say  “  forgive 
us  our  trespasses,”  but  He  admitted  no  trespass 
of  His  own. — The  records  show  Him  as  in 
frequent  communion  with  God,  they  never  re¬ 
port  one  word  about  any  confession  of  sin  He 
made  to  God.  Viewed  on  the  positive  side,  the 
relation  of  Jesus  to  the  Father  was  that  of  un¬ 
clouded  fellowship.  He  Himself  summed  it  up 
in  a  sentence  when  He  declared  “  I  do  always 
the  things  that  please  him.”  The  whole 
picture  of  His  life,  as  portrayed  by  the 
Gospels,  perfectly  matches  this  description. 

Let  us  think  what  this  means.  For  one  thing 
it  is  absolutely  unique  in  human  experience. 
The  holiest  man  that  ever  lived  has  never 
passed  through  life  without  making  constant 
confession  of  sin  and  shortcoming.  The  nearer 
man  approaches  the  Eternal  Light,  the  more  is 
he  aware  of  the  imperfections  of  his  own 
nature.  The  Church  is  rich  in  ‘‘  Confessions  ” 
made  by  the  Saints,  but  in  every  one  of  them 
the  note  of  unrealized  good,  and  of  committed 
evil  is  present.  The  greatest  Saint  has  not 
dared  to  say  ‘‘  I  do  always  the  things  that  please 
God  ” ;  at  the  best  he  has  said  ''  I  try  to  please 
Him  but  I  have  my  faults.”  What  then  shall 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ?  35 


we  say  of  Jesus  who,  admittedly  by  all,  knew 
God  best  and  most  completely  revealed  His 
character,  and  yet  claimed  to  be  entirely  har¬ 
monious  with  Him  ?  A  person  who  holds  the 
high  view  of  God  that  Jesus  did,  and  yet  admits 
no  defect  in  his  relation  with  Him,  is  in  one  of 
two  situations:  he  is  either  so  vain  and  self- 
deceived  that  he  is  not  capable  of  understand¬ 
ing  the  hidden  evil  of  his  nature,  or  he  is  so 
good  that  he  is  beyond  the  common  measure. 
Can  any  one  doubt  where,  in  this  dilemma,  the 
truth  lies? 

Let  us  pass  to  the  second  question. — What 
was  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  His  fellows? 
Again  the  record,  after  criticism  and  psychol¬ 
ogy  have  expended  their  entire  force  upon  it, 
shows  a  perfect  relation.  Jesus  never  failed 
any  one.  He  made  no  promise  that  He  did 
not  fulfil.  He  offered  no  bribe  for  disciple- 
ship.  He  neither  flattered  the  great  nor  pat¬ 
ronized  the  small.  He  would  not  receive  the 
rich  because  they  had  wealth,  nor  reject  them 
because  they  were  rich.  He  loved  the  poor 
not  because  they  were  socially  separated  from 
others,  but  because  they  were  humanly  needy. 
He  knew  no  class  :  He  regarded  human 
beings  for  what  they  were  humanly  worth,  or 
for  what  they  were  capable  of  becoming. — He 


36  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS? 


rejected  the  usual  estimates  of  men  and  pro¬ 
pounded  new  human  values.  Publicans  and 
harlots,  commonly  regarded  as  being  on  the 
scrap  heap,  were  treated  by  Him  as  only 
“  lost  ” — that  is,  they  had  to  be  found  again 
and  He  came  to  find  them.  When  He  found 
them  they  also  found  ''  themselves.  A  Mary 
Magdalene  became  a  Saint  and  a  Dismas,  ex¬ 
piating  his  crimes  upon  a  cross  raised  by  a 
world  that  killed  thieves,  was  given  the  chance 
of  Paradise.  Women,  branded  by  the  society 
of  His  day  as  the  inferiors  of  man,  were  ele¬ 
vated  by  Him  to  the  highest  and  divinest  fel¬ 
lowship,  with  man  and  with  God.  From 
earthly  honours  He  turned  away;  the  only 
crown  He  wore  was  made  of  thorns.  And  at 
the  end  He  gave  His  life  for  the  salvation  of 
the  world,  thus  reaching  the  final  altitude  of 
love. 

The  third  question  remains  to  be  answered, 
what  was  His  relation  to  Himself?  It  can  be 
answered  in  a  word:  It  was  that  of  a  perfect 
equilibrium  between  all  the  parts.  In  His  hu¬ 
manity  were  all  those  elements  which  belong  to 
our  race.  Every  natural  passion  was  there, 
and  every  natural  faculty,  yet  never  was  there 
the  least  clash  or  the  least  disproportion  be¬ 
tween  them  all.  Gentle  and  compassionate, 
He  was  also  angry  when  evil  in  any  form 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS?  37 

threatened  the  handiwork  of  God  in  man.  He 
was  never  angry  or  even  ruffled  when  personal 
affronts  were  paid  to  Him.  In  His  last  agony 
He  uttered  no  word  of  malediction  upon  His 
enemies.  Rather  He  prayed  for  them.  When 
Pilate  uttered  his  word  '' Bcce  homo^'  there 
was  no  moral  or  religious  content  associated 
v/ith  it  in  the  mind  of  the  Pro-Consul,  but  the 
Church  has  not  gone  astray  when  it  has  in¬ 
vested  Pilate's  word  with  a  higher  meaning 
and  used  it  to  express  its  belief  that  in  Jesus 
Christ  there  stood  a  perfect  man. — ^And  Pilate's 
confession  ‘‘  I  find  no  fault  in  him  "  has  been 
endorsed  by  the  considered  judgment  of  two 
millenniums  of  mankind.  If  holiness,  then, 
consists  in  a  perfect  relation  of  man  to  himself, 
to  his  fellows  and  to  God,  Jesus  was  preemi¬ 
nently  and  uniquely  holy.  None  other  can  be 
placed  in  the  same  category  with  Him. 

We  are  bound  therefore  in  this  light  to  put 
the  radical  question  What  manner  of  man  is 
this?  ”  How  shall  we  account  for  Jesus 
Christ?  Has  He  been  invented,  or  idealized, 
or  is  He  photographed  from  life?  Has  He 
been  invented?  But  who  invented  Him? 
John  Stuart  Mill,  an  avowed  unbeliever — in  his 
famous  lectures  on  Theism  asks:  “  Who 
amongst  the  disciples  of  Christ  or  amongst 
their  proselytes  was  capable  of  inventing  the 


38  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS? 


sayings  ascribed  to  Jesus,  or  matching  the  type 
of  character  revealed  in  the  Gospels?”  If 
Christ  has  been  invented  or  idealized,  then  the 
problem  is  only  removed  one  degree  further 
back,  since  we  have  to  discover  an  unknown 
writer,  a  genius  of  the  first  water,  who  was 
equal  to  the  task  of  creating  such  a  being  as 
Jesus  Christ.  This  simply  complicates  the 
situation.  No!  He  has  not  been  invented  nor 
idealized;  nobody  was  capable  of  inventing 
Him,  Then  He  has  been  photographed.  We 
have  in  Him  a  Figure  from  real  life. 

Is  it  possible  to  escape  this  conclusion?  The 
hypothesis  that  legendary  matter  has  been 
added  to  the  Gospels  and  that  the  presence  of 
miracle  in  the  records  vitiates  the  whole  ac¬ 
count,  does  not  in  reality  even  remotely  touch 
the  question  we  are  dealing  with  and  which, 
after  all,  is  the  main  question.  The  real  ques¬ 
tion  is  the  ensemble — ^the  total  picture  given  to 
us  of  Jesus  Christ,  not  alone  in  the  Gospels,  but 
in  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
details  may  be  left  aside  for  the  moment  and 
the  question  of  miracles  reserved.  It  is  with 
the  Character  of  Jesus  that  we  are  now  con¬ 
cerned  and  we  must  not  be  side-tracked  by  any 
other  question.  One  point  of  great  importance 
needs  emphasizing,  which  is  that  the  earliest 
writing  in  the  New  Testament — anterior  to  the 


WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ?  39 


Gospels — presents  us  with  a  view  of  the  Person 
of  Christ  which  demands  the  Gospel  narrative 
to  complete  it  on  the  historic  side.  By  general 
admission  St.  Paul’s  first  letter  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians  is  one  of  the  early  documents  of  the 
New  Testament,  dated  in  the  early  fifties.'  Let 
any  careful  and  unbiased  person  study  the 
portrait  of  Christ  as  it  is  presented  in  that  let¬ 
ter,  and  then  ask  whether  the  hypothesis  of 
“  legend  ”  does  not  visibly  shrink  to  small 
dimensions ! 

We  have  to  return  to  our  starting  point.  If 
it  be  true,  as  Dr.  Stop  ford  Brooke  phrased  it, 
that  Jesus  reached  His  high  excellence  as  a 
man,  and  by  a  man’s  power  alone;  and  it  is  a 
clear  disclosure  that  our  nature  is  capable  of 
reaching  the  same  height,”  then,  I  repeat,  we 
are  compelled  to  enquire.  Where  is  the  second 
to  Him?  Why  should  He  remain  alone?  If 
He  is  only  a  man  and  by  His  own  effort  He 
reached  that  height,  the  mystery  of  life  is  in¬ 
creased,  for  it  means  that  in  the  whole  history 
of  humanity  one  man  alone  has  been  able  to 
reach  the  summit.  And  that,  again,  means  that 
the  rest  of  us  stand  absolutely  condemned  in 
His  presence,  for  we  have  failed  to  do  what 
He  did  when,  according  to  this  theory,  we 
might  have  done  so.  Or  it  means  this:  it  is 

*  Sec  upon  this  point  the  next  chapter. 


40  WHAT  MANNER  OF  MAN  IS  THIS  ? 


the  most  serious  reflection  upon  God's  provi¬ 
dence.  Could  we  believe  in  God  if  we  accepted 
Dr.  Brooke’s  theory?  Should  we  not  have  to 
say,  “  O  God,  here  is  humanity  crying  for  you. 
You  have  made  us  all,  and  yet  of  all  the  mil¬ 
lions  you  have  made,  only  one  man  has  been 
capable  of  reaching  the  height  that  we  all  admit 
Christ  reached.  Why  were  we  all  not  made 
thus?”  To  say  that  Christ  is  merely  a  man 
increases  the  mystery  of  human  life,  and  im¬ 
perils  the  Fatherhood  and  providence  of  God. 

There  is  only  one  logical  conclusion  at  which 
we  can  arrive.  It  is  the  conclusion  presented 
by  the  New  Testament  and  the  Church,  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  God-man.  The  only  answer 
that  satisfies  the  intellect  and  the  heart  concern¬ 
ing  Christ  is  the  ancient  answer,  ‘‘  Thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.” 


Ill 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  LIMITLESS 

LORD 

WE  have  arrived  at  the  point  where  we 
see  clearly  that  there  is  a  plus  in 
Jesus  Christ,  possessed  by  no  other 
person  who  has  ever  been  upon  this  planet  and 
that  this  compels  us  to  answer  the  question, 
**  What  manner  of  man  is  this  ?  ”  But  now, 
having  gone  so  far,  we  are  compelled  to  go 
farther.  It  is  not  simply  with  the  Christ  of  the 
Gospels  that  we  are  concerned,  but  with  the 
Christ  of  history.  For  nearly  two  thousand 
years  He  has  reigned,  overcoming  the  obstacles 
of  space  and  of  time  and  fashioning  the  lives  of 
unnumbered  millions  of  His  disciples  through¬ 
out  the  world.  The  Christian  society  exists  as 
a  universal  society — nothing  is  more  certain 
than  that.  And  it  exists  because  of  Him. 
Divided  as  Christians  are  upon  many  points — 
some  of  them  very  serious  ones — they  hold,  as 
bodies,  one  common  faith.  Roman,  Greek, 
Anglican  and  Free  Churches  all  profess  their 
faith  in  the  Divinity  of  our  Lord.  Now  the 

society  which  professes  this  belief,  composed  as 

41 


42  TRIUMPH  OF  LIMITLESS  LORD 


it  is  of  Christians  who  differ  from  each  other 
upon  many  points,  is  a  living  palpable  phenom¬ 
enon  at  work  under  our  eyes. 

It,  like  every  other  society,  is  an  effect  and 
demands  an  adequate  cause.  Its  origin  is  his¬ 
toric,  There  would  have  been  no  Christians 
in  the  world  had  there  been  no  Christ.  No 
one  can  reasonably  doubt  that  Jesus  created 
the  society  which  bears  His  name.  The  build¬ 
ing  exists.  He  is  undoubtedly  both  its  archi¬ 
tect  and  builder,  the  living  cause  of  the  most 
remarkable  effect  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  Church’s  history  to 
the  present  hour  the  central  faith  of  the 
Church  has  never  varied.  Every  branch  of 
the  Church  offers  prayers  which  all  can  follow 
and  sings  hymns  and  canticles  in  which  all  can 
join.  And  at  the  core  of  the  prayers  and  the 
songs  there  lies  belief  in  the  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Are  the  prayers  addressed  to  the 
Father?  It  is  ‘‘through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.”  The  classic  hymns  of  the  Church — the 
common  property  of  all — express  in  varied 
tones  this  one  common  faith.  The  Te  Deum 
in  which  Christ  is  adored  as  the  King  of  Glory, 
as  the  Redeemer  of  men,  as  the  opener  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  as  the  final  judge  of  men, 
as  the  object  of  our  hope  and  the  goal  of  our 
desires,  is  the  one  classic  hymn  of  Christendom 


TRIUMPH  OF  LIMITLESS  LORD  43 


which  sums  up,  not  theologically,  but  practically 
the  great  faith. 

The  sacraments,  which  are  public  acts,  wit¬ 
ness  the  same  faith.  Baptism  is  performed  in 
the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  or  as  in  certain  early  cases, 
“  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.’’  The  Lord’s 
Supper  finds  its  centre  in  Jesus  Christ.  In  it  we 
remember  Him  and  mystically  feed  upon  His 
flesh  and  blood,  thus  expressing  our  deepest 
faith  that  He  is  our  very  life.  The  Church 
reserves  one  day  in  every  week  for  the  public 
worship  of  Almighty  God.  This  day  is  not 
the  Jewish  Sabbath.  It  is  a  new  day — the  first 
day  of  the  week — established  because  Chris¬ 
tians  believe  that  on  that  day  Christ  rose  again 
from  the  dead  and  showed  Himself  to  be  the 

Son  of  God  with  power.”  The  Christian 
Sunday,  if  we  will  only  trouble  to  remember 
the  fact,  is  a  witness  to  the  belief  in  the  Divin¬ 
ity  of  our  Lord. 

Now  it  is  this  fact  of  the  Church  as  the 
creation  of  Christ  and  as  His  perpetual  witness 
that  modern  Rationalism  has  never  fairly  faced. 
It  spends  its  time  at  what  it  imagines  to  be  the 
**  sources  ”  and  misses  the  mighty  river  which 
flows  past  its  door.  It  will  not  do  to  say  with 
a  modern  sceptic  “  Christianity  owes  a  great 
deal  to  the  fact  that  Constantine  adopted  it  as 


44  TRIUMPH  OF  LIMITLESS  LORD 


the  state  religion  of  the  Roman  Empire/’  add¬ 
ing  with  touching  naivete  the  rise  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  was  made  possible  by  the  act  of  Constan¬ 
tine.”  Not  to  stress  the  nonsense  which  at¬ 
tributes  the  rise  of  a  thing  to  something  which 
followed  it  three  centuries  later,  it  is  the  simple 
fact  that  Constantine’s  adoption  of  Christianity 
as  the  official  religion  was  the  very  worst  serv¬ 
ice  he  could  have  rendered  it.  It  was  a  dis¬ 
aster,  and  set  back  the  clock  to  an  extent  which 
even  now  we  can  hardly  realize.  The  Church, 
then,  has  to  be  accounted  for,  with  its  vitality 
and  its  attachment  to  a  living  Lord,  despite  all 
the  setbacks  and  errors  which  have  marked  its 
course.  It  can  be  accounted  for  alone  by 
Christ — but  by  what  kind  of  a  Christ?  Only 
by  a  Christ  who  answers  to  the  faith  of  the 
Church,  and  here  at  once  we  are  placed  in  the 
presence  of  a  miracle:  the  miracle  of  the  tri¬ 
umph  of  the  limitless  Lord. 

Let  us  see  what  this  involves:  the  greatest 
force  in  life  is  personality.  All  the  knowledge 
that  we  possess  comes  to  us  through  persons. 
Our  characters  are  formed  by  persons  more 
than  by  precepts.  A  child  learns  not  so  much 
by  what  it  is  taught  vocally,  as  by  what  it  sees 
in  persons.  The  personality  of  the  parents  is 
the  greatest  force  of  teaching  for  the  child’s 
life.  The  private  life  of  the  world  is  most  in- 


TRIUMPH  OP  LIMITLESS  LORD  45 


fluenced  by  persons,  beginning  with  father  and 
mother,  brother  and  sister,  in  the  family  circle, 
and  enlarging  into  that  greater  life  where  we 
are  gradually  admitted.  In  every  case  personal 
influence  moulds,  makes  or  mars  our  lives. 
The  public  life  of  the  world,  too,  is  most  in¬ 
fluenced  by  personality.  The  politician  who 
exercises  the  greatest  influence  does  so  largely 
on  account  of  his  personality.  However  good 
a  man’s  principles  may  be  in  the  political  world, 
there  must  be  a  magnetic  personality  behind 
them  before  the  crowd  will  seize  them  and 
apply  them.  In  music,  in  art,  in  literature — 
everywhere  indeed,  when  we  get  to  the  root  of 
things  we  find  that  personality  is  the  greatest 
human  force. 

Now  all  human  personalities  are  subject  to 
the  fatal  drawback  of  limitation — the  limita¬ 
tion  of  space  and  of  time.  First,  space.  There 
is  no  such  thing  in  the  world  as  a  human  per¬ 
sonality  imposing  itself  universally  either  in  the 
sphere  of  politics  or  religion.  The  influence  of 
the  politician  is  limited  to  his  party.  The 
real  statesman  who  is  monarch  in  his  own  land 
is  often  a  mere  name  elsewhere.  The  great 
founders  of  religions  in  the  world  have  all  been 
fatally  circumscribed  by  space.  Abraham 
remains  a  Semitic,  Mohammed  an  Arab,  Gau¬ 
tama  an  Indian,  and  the  religions  they  founded 


46  TRIUMPH  OF  LIMITLESS  LORD 


bear  the  same  marks  of  limitation.  They  can 
never  become  universal,  partly  because  of  the 
fatal  influence  of  space. 

The  second  limitation  is  that  of  time.  Time 
disintegrates  every  human  work  of  the  brain 
or  of  the  hand.  It  plays  havoc  with  persons. 
The  passing  of  time  diminishes  their  influence, 
until  finally  it  disappears.  Socrates  was  in  his 
day  the  idol  of  Athens.  His  name  retained 
part  of  its  magic  for  a  few  years  but  now  he 
lives  only  as  a  memory.  And  so  it  is  with 
every  great  human  personality.  The  cause 
may  live  on  in  some  form  or  other.  The  ideas 
of  the  great  teacher  may  be  preserved  in  writ¬ 
ing.  But  they  are  not  immutable.  The 
modern  Jew  does  not  feel  himself  bound  to 
Moses  as  did  the  Jew  of  yesterday.  The 
educated  Moslem  is  beginning  to  interpret  ” 
Mohammed.  No  man  living  would  calmly  and 
in  the  plenitude  of  his  reason  sacrifice  his  life 
for  personal  love  of  Moses,  Mohammed,  Gau¬ 
tama.  Time  surrounds  all  historic  figures 
with  a  mist  or  a  halo:  it  leaves  them  only  as 
pictures  or  memories. 

One  Person  and  one  only  has  escaped  this 
universal  lazv — Jesus  Christ.  He  is  the  sole 
One  who  has  conquered  space.  He  alone  is 
the  ‘‘  Son  of  Man  ” — neither  Jew,  Roman  or 
Greek — ^but  the  Son  of  Man,  He  belongs 


TEIUMPH  OF  LIMITLESS  LOED  47 


to  the  entire  human  race.  He  has  upon 
Him  the  universal  mark.  His  disciples  are 
of  all  peoples.  Faith  in  Him  is  naturalized 
in  both  hemispheres  and  in  every  clime.  The 
stalwart  sons  of  the  North,  hardened  by  cold 
and  frost;  the  dreamy  sons  of  the  South,  re¬ 
laxed  by  the  caresses  of  an  unfailing  warmth; 
the  imaginative  children  of  the  East,  and  the 
unromantic  sons  of  the  West  alike  have  over¬ 
turned  their  idols  to  worship  the  One  true  God 
and  His  Son  Jesus  Christ.  Fijians,  Tierra  del 
Fuegians,  the  savages  of  New  Guinea,  the 
Esquimaux,  Greenlanders,  Icelanders — men  of 
all  races  have  become  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  statement  is  easily  made,  but  it 
is  astonishing  to  the  last  degree  when  its  import 
is  grasped.  For  this  conquest  of  space  is  un¬ 
known  to  any  human  religious  society.  Bud¬ 
dhism  is  fatally  encircled  within  the  bound¬ 
aries  of  two  eastern  kingdoms ;  it  has  no  power 
to  pass  the  frontiers  and  to  capture  the  forward 
nations  of  the  West.  Mohammedanism,  which 
set  out  to  conquer  the  world  by  the  sword,  has 
been  forced  back  and  confined  to  the  desert 
and  to  decaying  peoples.  But  the  faith  of 
Christ  is  established  in  the  bosom  of  all  nations 
and  where  it  has  taken  up  its  abode  men  have 
lifted  up  their  hearts  and  rejoiced. 

This  is  nothing  less  than  a  miracle,  for  space 


48  TRIUMPH  OP  LIMITLESS  LORD 


is  the  most  formidable  obstacle  to  human  fel¬ 
lowship.  What  appeals  to  people  in  the  tem¬ 
perate  zones  is  repellent  to  those  in  the  torrid 
zones  and  vice  versa.  Increase  space  and  the 
obstacle  grows,  until  at  last  men  at  the  ex¬ 
tremes  have  nothing  whatever  in  common  with 
each  other.  But  Jesus  Christ  has  surmounted 
this  obstacle.  When  He  was  in  the  flesh  there 
was  the  magnetism  of  His  wonderful  personal 
presence,  that  wonderful  face;  that  attractive 
manner;  those  pearls  of  wisdom  and  of  life  that 
fell  from  His  lips,  the  gentleness  of  Plis  heart. 
But  He  died  and  the  world  ceased  to  behold 
Him.  Yet  His  passing  made  no  difference  to 
the  millions  who  became  His  disciples.  They 
knew  that  He  lived  in  them  and  although  they 
saw  Him  not  yet  they  loved  Him.  Whom 
having  not  seen  ye  love,”  The  early  Church, 
which  never  saw  Jesus  in  the  flesh,  lived  in 
Him  and  for  Him  and  cheerfully  died  for  Him. 

And  so  it  has  been  during  two  thousand 
years.  Jesus  has  been  and  is  personally  loved, 
as  if  He  were  indeed  present,  which,  in  fact, 
He  is.  And  He  is  loved  by  people  of  all  tem¬ 
peraments,  ardent  and  cool  alike.  Christianity 
is  declared  to  be,  by  some,  a  matter  of  tempera¬ 
ment.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the 
truth. 

Christianity  is  not  a  matter  of  temperament 


TKIUMPH  OF  LIMITLESS  LORD  49 


at  all.  If  it  were,  we  should  find  persons  of 
only  one  temperament  attached  to  it.  But 
the  history  of  two  thousand  years  shows  us 
persons  of  every  temperament  exhibiting  the 
same  devotion,  the  same  attachment  to  Jesus 
Christ  that  characterized  apostolic  life.  In 
the  South  Seas  are  men  tanned  by  the  hot  sun, 
men  of  ardent  temperament-yesterday  canni¬ 
bals — now  changed  by  the  preaching  of  the 
Cross  of  Christ.  And  it  is  the  same  in  the 
frozen  North,  where  perpetual  cold  reigns. 
Here,  where  the  sun  is  fierce,  and  there,  where 
it  is  absent — it  makes  no  difference  to  devotion. 
When  these  people  of  different  temperaments 
attach  themselves  to  Christ,  there  is  kindled  in 
their  hearts  a  passionate  devotion  to  the  Person 
of  the  Son  of  God.  Christ  has  accomplished 
the  miracle.  He  has  triumphed  over  the  obstacle 
of  space. 

He  has  also  triumphed  over  the  obstacle  of 
time.  If  space  is  fatal  to  personal  influence, 
time  is  fatal  to  personal  affection.  All  human 
love  is  affected  by  absence  or  death.  Time 
softens  the  blow  and  heals  the  wound  and 
opens  up  the  way  to  a  new  affection  which  re¬ 
moves  the  old  to  the  place  of  pleasant  memory. 
The  good  and  great  man  inspires  affection 
while  he  is  alive  and  while  his  personal  mag¬ 
netism  endures.  But  after  his  death  the  charm 


50  TEIUMPH  OF  LIMITLESS  LORD 


is  removed;  the  passing  of  the  years  changes 
the  perspective.  Others  rise  up  who  claim 
affection  and  loyalty.  Men  easily  transfer 
their  devotion  and  their  affection. 

But  there  is  one,  and  one  only,  exception  to 
the  rule.  Jesus  Christ,  who  lived  here  nearly 
two  thousand  years  ago  is  loved  to-day,  I  re¬ 
peat,  as  if  He  were  still  here.  It  is  a  phenom¬ 
enon  which  abides  alone.  There  is  nothing 
else  like  it  in  the  world.  It  is  not  His  memory 
alone  that  Christians  prize:  it  is  His  person, 
real  and  living;  a  presence  realized  here  and 
now.  His  words  as  recorded  in  the  Gospels 
are  treasured,  but  Christian  ears  also  listen  for 
His  loving  voice  to  speak  to  their  inward  selves. 
It  is  not  a  teacher  who  was,  but  a  Lord  who  is, 
whom  they  adore  and  with  whom  they  com¬ 
mune.  This  love  for  Jesus  is  not  equally 
strong  in  all  Christian  hearts,  nor  is  it  always 
at  white  heat.  Often  it  smoulders,  but  it  never 
expires.  When  it  is  perfect  it  raises  the  human 
spirit  to  an  altitude  which  others  never  reach. 
It  has  created  a  Livingstone,  a  Xavier,  a  Mof¬ 
fat,  a  Paton,  a  Bernard  and  a  million  more 
who  for  love  of  Him  have  renounced  every 
prospect  in  life,  journeying  to  the  farthest 
points  of  the  compass,  life  in  hand,  enduring 
poverty,  hunger,  untold  dangers,  burning  and 
reviling  and  even  death  itself.  And  is  He  only 


TKIUMPH  OF  LIMITLESS  LORD  51 


a  man  who  has  inspired  all  this  devotion?  It 
is  impossible.  If  Jesus  be  but  a  man,  and  as  a 
man  has  wrought  this  wonder,  then  we  must 
award  the  palm  to  idolatry  since  it  is  the 
supreme  force  of  life.  But  He  is  more  than 
a  man.  Only  God  could  produce  so  great 
marvels  and  triumph  so  wonderfully.  Again 
we  have  to  say  that  nothing  less  than  the  con¬ 
fession  of  the  Church  can  adequately  account 
for  Jesus — “  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God.'^ 


IV 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH 

WE  now  reach  the  very  heart  of  our 
theme.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  Church  of  God  throughout 
its  long  history  has  held  firmly  to  the  belief  in 
the  divinity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Whether 
that  belief  be  true  or  untrue  is  not  the  question 
for  the  moment;  the  point  is  that  the  Church 
has  unwaveringly  held  it.  As  evidence  of  this 
there  may  be  cited  the  ancient  creeds  of  the 
Church  and  the  great  confessions  of  the  Re¬ 
formed  Churches.  The  truth  or  otherwise  of 
the  substance  of  these  creeds  and  confessions 
is  not  before  us  for  analysis  at  this  juncture, 
but  we  are  entitled  to  use  them  as  evidence  of 
what  the  Church  has  always  believed.  The 
Apostles’  Creed  names  ‘‘Jesus  Christ  as  His 
only  Son,  our  Lord.”  The  Nicene  Creed,  re¬ 
cited  at  the  Holy  Communion,  names  the  “  one 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God — God  of  God — of  one  substance  with  the 
Father — who  is  worshipped  and  glorified.” 
The  Athanasian  symbol  declares  our  Lord 

52 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH  53 


Jesus  Christ  to  be  “  God  and  man  ” — perfect 
God,  perfect  man,  yet  one  Christ.”  The 
numerous  “  confessions  ”  of  the  Reformed 
Churches  are  quite  explicit  upon  the  subject  of 
our  Lord’s  divinity.  Waldensian,  Moravian, 
Lutheran,  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Methodist — 
hundreds  of  them — differing  as  they  do  upon 
vital  points,  are  one  in  this — that  they  accord 
to  Jesus  Christ  the  chief  place  and  name  Him 
as  “  Lord  and  God.” 

In  the  Church  of  the  first  four  centuries 
fierce  battles  were  fought  over  the  person  of 
Christ  and  later  again  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
but  each  battle  has  ended  in  a  fresh  declaration 
of  the  catholic  ”  faith  concerning  our  Lord’s 
divinity.  Sections  have  split  from  the  main 
body  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  denying  His 
Divinity,  but  these  have  always  been  small. 
Some  who  have  confessed  the  Divinity  of 
Christ  have  done  so  in  terms  which  appear  thin 
and  anaemic  beside  the  rich  confession  of  the 

catholic  ”  faith.  But  speaking  of  the  Church 
as  a  whole,  its  faith  in  the  proper  Godhead  ” 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  been  unvarying. 

Modern  Rationalism  declares  that  this  faith 
does  not  repose  upon  stable  foundations,  that 
it  is  not  historically  related  to  anything  that 
Christ  Himself  taught ;  that  in  fine  it  is  a  per¬ 
version  of  the  simple  faith  which  characterized 


54  THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH 


the  primitive  Christians.  We  are  told  cate¬ 
gorically  that  Jesus  Himself  never  claimed  to 
be  what  the  Church  alleges  Him  tO’  be  and  that 
He  professed  no  relation  to  God  which  is  not 
also  the  relation  of  every  man  to  Him.  That 
if  He  was  the  Son  of  God  it  was  only  in  the 
sense  that  applies  to  every  person. 

Here  then  is  a  distinct  challenge  and  we  ac¬ 
cept  it  cheerfully.  The  question  we  have  now 
to  ask  is — did  Jesus  affirm  His  Divinity  in 
terms  explicit  or  implicit?  Do  the  primitive 
documents  of  Christianity — that  is  the  New 
Testament — contain  the  materials,  fluid  or 
fixed,  for  the  developed  belief  of  the  later 
Church  ?  It  is  vital  to  know  what  Jesus  taught 
about  Himself.  It  is  also  vital  to  know  what 
His  earliest  disciples  thought  of  Him.  There 
have  been  bitter  critical  controversies  concern¬ 
ing  the  authorship  and  the  dates  of  the  books 
of  the  New  Testament.  But  it  is  now  generally 
agreed  that  one  of  the  earliest  documents,  if 
not  the  earliest,  in  the  New  Testament,  is  St. 
Paul’s  first  letter  to  the  Thessalonians,  while 
Harnack  has  put  it,  finally,  beyond  doubt 
that  the  third  Gospel  is  really  the  work  of  St. 
Luke,  the  companion  of  St.  Paul.  The  im¬ 
plications  of  these  admissions  are  enormous, 
as  we  shall  see.  How,  then,  does  the  earliest 
document  in  the  New  Testament  speak  of 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH  55 


Jesus  Christ?  Written  probably  in  the  spring 
of  the  year  52  a.  d.  or  possibly  earlier, 
within  twenty  years  of  the  crucifixion — ^Jesus 
is  referred  to  thus:  “  The  Church  ...  in 
God  the  Father  and  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ” 
(1:1);  ‘'our  Lord  Jesus  Christ”  (1:3); 
“  his  Son  from  heaven  whom  he  raised  from 
the  dead”  (1:10);  “may  our  God  and 
Father  himself,  and  oiir  Lord  Jesus,  direct  our 
way  unto  you  ”  (3:  11) ;  “  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  with  all  his  saints”  (3:  13) ;  “we 
believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again  ” 
(4:  14);  “salvation  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ”  (5:  9);  “the  will  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  ”  (5:  18). 

Observe  that  in  the  most  natural  manner  and 
without  any  “  apologetic  ”  purpose  whatever, 
God  and  Jesus  are  bracketed  together  as  one. 
The  two  are  never  separated  for  a  moment. 
No  attempt  is  made  to  demonstrate  the  divinity 
of  Christ.  The  Thessalonians  became  trans¬ 
formed  men  through  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel.  They  knew  the  saving  “  power  ”  of 
Christ  in  experience  (1:  5).  Christ  did  for 
them  what  only  God  could  do  and  from  the 
beginning  they  gave  to  Him  the  first  place  and 
spake  of  Him  in  the  same  breath  with  God  the 
Father.  And  so  it  is  in  every  one  of  St.  Paul’s 
epistles.  In  two  places  the  great  apostle  pro- 


66  THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHUECH 


pounds  a  doctrine  of  our  Lord's  divinity — 
Philippians  2  and  Colossians  1 — in  which 
Christ  is  set  forth  as  the  image  of  the  in¬ 
visible  God  "  who  was  “  in  the  form  of  God  " 
and  in  whose  name  every  knee  shall  bow.” 

These  great  passages  demand  the  closest 
study.  We  have  not  now  the  space  in  which  to 
expound  them.  But  the  great  point  to  be 
observed  is  that  this  developed  ”  doctrine  of 
the  Godhead  of  Christ,  as  it  is  called,  is  justi¬ 
fied  by  the  general  attitude  of  all  the  epistles 
toward  Him.  It  is  not,  as  some  claim,  an  ex¬ 
ceptional  statement  due  to  the  thinking  of  one 
apostle.  It  represents  the  faith  of  the  entire 
primitive  Church.  Let  the  reader  be  at  the 
trouble  to  collect  every  reference  to  our  Lord 
in  the  epistles  and  the  book  of  the  Apocalypse 
and  see  if  this  be  not  so.  It  is  no  question  of 
‘‘  proof  texts  ”  or  special  pleading,  it  is  a  ques¬ 
tion  of  a  literature  shot  through  and  through 
with  belief  in  the  deity  of  Christ  and  if  this 
belief  were,  by  a  literary  manoeuvre,  to  be 
withdrawn  from  the  New  Testament  epistles, 
there  would  be  nothing  left  to  hold  them  to¬ 
gether.  They  would  fall  apart.  This  much 
every  unprejudiced  person  must  surely  admit, 
as  a  matter  of  simple  fact.  What  is  there  left, 
for  example,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  if 
the  great  opening  sentences  are  excluded: 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH  57 


‘‘  His  Son  .  .  .  who  being  the  effulgence 

of  his  glory  and  the  very  image  of  his  sub¬ 
stance  This  is  the  key-note  to  which  the 
rest  is  set.  Or  take  the  book  of  the  Apoca¬ 
lypse.  The  whole  book  turns  upon  the  person 
of  Him  who  is  its  chief  figure  and  it  too  would 
fall  to  pieces  if  He  were  withdrawn  from  it. 
But  how  is  He  spoken  of  in  its  pages?  As 
“  him  who  loosed  us  from  our  sins  in  his 
blood,”  as  ‘‘Alpha  and  Omega,”  as  the  holder 
of  “  the  keys  of  death  and  of  hades,”  as  the 
“  Lamb  upon  the  throne,”  as  the  “  Word  of 
God  ”  evermore  to  be  worshipped  and  adored. 

Men  may  disbelieve  in  His  divinity,  but  they 
cannot  deny  that  the  primitive  Church  adored 
Him  as  the  supreme  Lord.  I  would  affirm 
further  that  the  main  clauses  of  the  Nicene 
Creed  contain  no  confession  of  faith  in  Christ 
which  may  not  be  legitimately  derived  from 
the  epistles  of  the  New  Testament. 

But  from  the  primitive  Church  we  must 
now  appeal  to  Christ  Himself.  Many  who 
admit  as  a  matter  of  history  the  belief  of  the 
early  Church  in  our  Lord’s  divinity,  declare 
that  such  a  belief  does  not  rest  upon  any  claim 
made  by  Jesus  Himself.  Paul,  they  tell  us, 
is  the  true  founder  of  Christianity,  as  it  has 
been  historically  developed,  and  Paul,  they  say, 
misunderstood  Jesus.  Did  he?  Further,  it 


58  THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH 


is  said  that  the  fourth  Gospel,  which  undoubt¬ 
edly  sets  forth  the  Godhead  of  Christ,  differs 
radically  from  the  first  three  Gospels,  and  that 
therefore  it  must  be  regarded  not  as  history 
so  much  as  “  interpretation  ’’ :  the  “  interpre¬ 
tation/'  of  course,  being  open  to  the  usual 
criticism.  They  would  have  us  confine  our¬ 
selves  entirely  to  the  first  three  Gospels.  Ac¬ 
cepting  for  a  moment  the  limitation,  do  the 
synoptic  Gospels  set  forth  any  claim  of  our 
Lord  which  can  fairly  be  regarded  as  a  claim 
of  Divine  nature  and  relation  such  as  the 
Church  predicates  of  Him?  It  is  a  question 
of  fact  that  is  before  us.  It  is  admitted  that 
our  Lord,  who  appeared  at  the  apex  of  Jewish 
history  and  who,  humanly,  was  in  the  line  of 
David,  claimed  to  be  the  Jewish  Messiah. 
His  theme  was  the  kingdom  of  God  and  He 
claimed  to  be  the  King.  At  first  the  claim 
was  not  openly  made  to  the  world.  When  the 
moment  was  ripe,  our  Lord  elicited  from  the 
disciples,  whom  He  had  trained,  their  belief 
in  His  claim.  It  was  revealed "  to  them 
gradually.  When  they  at  length  knew,  they 
were  bidden  to  guard  silence  concerning  it 
(Mark  8:  30). 

At  the  end  He  made  a  public  claim  of  Mes- 
siahship.  The  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem 
was  deliberate.  It  was  His  challenge  to  the 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH  59 


nation  to  receive  Him.  As  Harnack  avows, 
it  could  mean  only  one  thing.”  Why  then 
did  they  not  receive  Him  ?  There  was  a 
moment  when  they  wished  by  force  to  make 
him  king.”  And  if  He  had  been  a  king,  a  Mes¬ 
siah,  such  as  they  expected — a  political  per¬ 
sonage  who  would  deliver  them  from  Roman 
tyranny  they  would  have  received  Him  with 
acclamation.  But  it  zms  His  divine  claim  that 
stood  in  the  zvay.  He  was  a  Messiah  of 
another  order  and  they  did  not  want  Him. 
It  is  not  possible  fairly  to  isolate  the  tragic  event 
of  Calvary  from  his  previous  teaching  and 
claims.  The  High  Priest  understood  what  it 
meant.  Our  Lord  was  condemned  for  “  blas¬ 
phemy  ” — for  a  divine  claim.  Here  again  it 
is  not  a  question  of  “  proof  texts  ”  so  much  as 
something  that  is  shot  into  the  warp  and  woof 
of  His  teaching  and  attitude. 

Confining  ourselves  to  the  synoptic  Gospels 
for  the  moment,  our  Lord  claimed  the  com¬ 
plete  allegiance  of  men,  declaring  that  denial 
of  Him  involved  denial  of  God  (Matt  10: 
32-33).  He  spoke  of  Himself  as  the  ‘Mul- 
filler  ”  of  the  law  (Matt.  5:7).  In  His  own 
name  He  forgave  sins.  His  words,  He  said, 
were  final  and  should  never  pass  away  (Matt 
24:  25).  Those  who  built  upon  them  would 
become  stable;  others  would  perish  (Matt 


60  THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHUECH 


7:  24-27).  He  claimed  to  be  the  supreme 
judge  of  men  (Matt.  13:  41;  16:  4;  25:  31). 
He  is  the  standard  for  man’s  life:  He  alone 
can  appraise  the  actions  of  a  man’s  life.  He 
promised  His  perpetual  presence  to  groups  of 
men  who  meet  in  His  Name  (Matt.  18:  19-20), 
and  to  the  Church  at  large  (Matt.  18:  16-20). 
He  claimed  to  know  God  as  none  other  and  to 
be  the  sole  authentic  revealer  of  the  Father 
(Matt.  11:  25-27).  This  great  passage,  ad¬ 
mitted  by  Renan  to  be  genuine  and  sublime, 
is  stressed  by  Harnack  who  says  it  is  clear 
“  that  He  named  Himself  alone  as  Son  of 
God.” 

He  came  to  make  men  real  sons  of  God  and 
He  claimed  to  know  the  Father  uniquely,  yet 
He  always  distinguished  between  His  own 
Sonship  and  that  of  others.  It  was  my 
Father  ”  and  ‘‘  your  Father.”  Never  did  He 
say,  including  Himself,  ""  otir  Father.^'  This 
is  an  astonishing  thing.  In  the  parable  of  the 
wicked  husbandmen,  he  clearly  distinguishes 
between  the  Servants,”  and  the  Son  ” 
(Himself).  He  places  Himself  in  a  category 
quite  different  from  any  other  of  God’s  mes¬ 
sengers  to  mankind.  Months  before  Gethsem- 
ane  loomed  in  view.  He  spoke  privately  to  His 
disciples  about  His  death  as  a  ransom  for 
many,”  and  of  His  resurrection  “  on  the  third 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH  61 


day.”  His  chosen  name  for  Himself  was  “  the 
Son  of  Man,”  a  term  expressing  more  than  the 
official  title  of  the  Messiah  and  indicating  His 
especial  relationship  to  the  whole  of  humanity. 
The  universal  note  of  His  teaching — “  unto  all 
the  world  ” —  indicated  the  relation  of  His  per¬ 
son  to  the  entire  race  of  man.  This  Christ 
who  made  so  prodigious  a  claim  gathered  to 
Himself  disciples  many  of  whom  beheld  Him 
in  the  intimacy  of  private  life.  And  they  be¬ 
lieved  Him  to  be  the  Son  of  God  and  they  died 
for  their  faith. 

Moreover,  Jesus  believed  that  He  had  a  fu¬ 
ture.  The  world  saw  in  Him  only  a  carpenter 
turned  prophet,  but  He  Himself  said,  ‘‘  You 
shall  be  brought  before  governors  and  kings 
for  my  sake.”  Does  the  world  remember  any 
other  peasant  teacher  who  dared  to  say  that 
his  disciples  would  attract  the  attention  of  kings 
and  governors  for  his  sake?  Yet  Jesus  did 
this  and  His  words  have  been  fulfilled.  He 
said  He  would  build  His  Church  and  the  gates 
of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  it.  The  date 
of  the  first  Gospel  is  entirely  immaterial  to  the 
question  of  the  truth  of  this  prediction.  It  has 
been  royally  fulfilled  and,  humanly  speaking, 
there  was  nothing  less  likely  than  that  it  should 
be. 

The  things  we  have  thus  rapidly  reviewed 


62  THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH 


belong  to  the  first  three  Gospels  of  which  Ra¬ 
tionalism  admits  in  part  the  value.  But  what 
of  the  fourth,  that  of  John?  Here,  from  the 
prologue  to  tlie  epilogue,  every  line  breathes 
the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ.  Suppose  it  be 
true  that  in  this  Gospel  there  is  both  history 
and  “  interpretation  ” ;  the  real  question  re¬ 
mains  to  be  answered,  is  that  interpretation 
true?  And  it  must  he  answered  in  the  light  of 
the  whole  Christian  history.  If  the  language 
and  the  style  of  the  fourth  Gospel  differ  from 
that  of  the  synoptic  Gospels,  does  the  thought? 
Is  there  anything  in  the  fourth  Gospel  that 
reaches  a  greater  altitude  than  the  tremendous 
words  of  St.  Matthew  11:  25-30,  of  which 
even  M.  Renan  admits  the  genuineness  ?  And 
what  shall  we  say  of  the  great  prayer  of  St. 
John  17?  That  prayer  alone  separates  Jesus 
from  other  men  forever.  Let  us  look  at  it 
since  it  is  the  only  full  length  prayer  of  our 
Lord  recorded  in  the  Gospels. 

When  a  man  speaks  to  God  in  prayer  he  re¬ 
veals  the  depths  of  his  soul.  How  then  does 
Jesus  speak  to  God?  It  is  impossible  to  doubt 
that  He  really  uttered  this  prayer.  Can  we 
conceive  of  anybody  inventing  it  and  putting 
it  into  His  mouth  ?  It  must  be  genuine  if  there 
is  anything  genuine  at  all.  But  regard  the 
solemn  implications  and  revelations  of  this 


THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHURCH  63 


wondrous  prayer !  “  This  is  life  eternal/'  says 

Jesus  to  the  Father,  “  that  they  should  know 
thee,  the  only  true  God  and  him  whom  thou 
didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ  ” — not  God  only, 
but  God  and  Christ.  The  Father  and  the  Son 
are  placed  together  in  that  prayer.  Flere  is  no 
rhetorical  effect  but  the  heart-breathing  of  the 
soul  in  prayer  to  God.  ‘‘  And  now,  O  Father, 
glorify  thou  me  with  thine  own  self,  with  the 
glory  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was." 
What  can  we  say  to  a  revelation  like  that? 
What  is  the  key  that  can  unlock  it  but  this  that 
we  are  using?  Again:  “And  all  things  that 
are  mine  are  thine,  and  thine  are  mine,  and  I 
am  glorified  in  them."  What  can  unlock  that 
mystery?  And  finally,  “Father,  that  which 
thou  hast  given  me,  I  will  that  where  I  am,  they 
also  may  be  with  me ;  that  they  may  behold  my 
glory  which  thou  hast  given  me;  for  thou 
lovedst  me  before  the  foundation  of  the  world." 
If  prayers  are  the  revelation  of  soul  reality, 
what  revelation  does  this  prayer  offer  of  the 
personality  of  Jesus? 

How,  then,  shall  we  account  for  Jesus 
Christ?  He  is  either  the  product  of  time  or 
the  product  of  eternity.  He  is  certainly  not 
the  product  of  time.  It  is  common  for  some  to 
say  that  He  represented  the  highest  work  of 
human  evolution.  But  if  Jesus  Christ  is  the 


64  THE  FAITH  OF  THE  CHUKCH 


product  of  evolution,  how  is  it  that  evolution 
has  not  produced  a  person  higher  than  Jesus 
Christ  ?  Theodore  Parker  admitted  “  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  greatest  Person  who  has 
appeared  upon  this  planet  until  the  present,’' 
but  he  added,  “  we  may  not  therefore  say  there 
will  never  be  a  greater  than  He  produced.” 
But  one  equally  great  replied,  “  In  Christ 
humanity  has  reached  its  highest  conceivable 
limit.  Beyond  Him  it  is  impossible  to  think 
of  human  elevation.” 

In  the  light  of  the  history  of  two  thousand 
years  which  of  the  two  has  the  advantage  of 
the  prophet?  We  can  only  adequately  account 
for  Him  as  the  Church  has  done  from  the  very 
first.  The  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  alone  ex¬ 
plains  the  facts  concerning  Him.  It  is  the  one 
key  that  unlocks  the  mystery  of  His  life,  and  it 
is  the  only  truth  that  satisfies  us.  What  do  we 
human  beings  need?  Union  with  God;  a 
centre,  a  summit,  an  ideal  for  our  race.  In  the 
God-man  we  possess  our  summit,  our  centre, 
our  ideal.  And  the  only  ideal  that  has  ever 
satisfied  man,  or  ever  can  satisfy  him,  is  Jesus 
as  the  New  Testament  reveals  Him.  The 
Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  one  resplendent 
star,  shining  in  the  darkness  of  the  night,  the 
pole-star  by  which  we  can  steer  our  frail  boat 
with  the  certainty  that  we  shall  reach  the 


THE  FAITH  OP  THE  CHURCH  65 


harbour.  The  truth  of  the  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ  is  admirable  for  the  intellect,  adorable 
for  the  heart,  and  redemptive  for  the  life.  To 
say  that  Jesus  is  of  the  value  of  God  for  us 
involves  many  metaphysical  questions  which 
we  cannot  here  and  now  touch.  We  need  not 
be  afraid  of  these.  We  may  never  be  able  to 
solve  them.  But  to  say  that  because  they  are 
difficult  we  must  needs  fall  back  upon  an 
earthly  humanity  of  Jesus  is  not  courageous. 
The  facts  demand  more,  even  the  full  faith  of 
the  Church.  And  we  must  stay  with  Dr. 
Dale — “  He  whom  I  obey  as  the  supreme 
authority  over  my  life;  He  whom  I  trust  for 
the  pardon  of  my  sins ;  He  to  whose  final  judg¬ 
ment  I  look — He — by  whatever  name  I  may 
call  Him — is  my  God.” 

“  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man, — 

And  only  a  man, — I  say 
That  of  all  mankind  I  cleave  to  Him, 

And  to  Him  will  I  cleave  alway. 

If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God, — 

And  the  only  God, — I  swear 
I  will  follow  Him  through  Heaven  and  Hell, 
The  earth,  the  sea  and  the  air !  ” 


V 


**  THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH  ” 

The  problem  of  God  in  relation  to  the 
life  of  man’s  sin,  his  suffering,  his 
salvation,  his  need,  his  aspirations  and 
his  survival  of  the  shock  of  death,  is  at  once 
the  oldest,  the  newest,  the  most  tormenting 
and  the  most  welcome  of  all  problems.  There 
is  nothing  so  pressing  as  this,  for  everything 
depends  upon  our  vital  and  harmonious  relation 
to  the  Being  who  has  produced  us  and  for 
whose  purposes  we  have  been  brought  into 
being.  God  has  “  made  us  for  Himself,”  said 
St.  Augustine,  “  and  our  hearts  are  unquiet 
until  they  rest  in  Him.” 

But  how  shall  we  know  Him?  Men  have 
sought  Him  by  the  way  of  reason  and  of 
philosophy  and  they  have  found  some  kind  of 
God :  a  Power  not  ourselves  that  makes  for 
righteousness  ” ;  an  infinite  and  eternal  sub¬ 
stance  from  which  all  things  proceed  ”;  a  Law, 
an  Order,  a  Mind.  But  nobody  ever  found  the 
true  and  living  God  the  Father  in  these  ways. 
Philosophy  and  pure  reason  give  us  an  abstrac¬ 
tion, — a  cold  and  remote  Deity — a  universally 

66 


‘‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH 67 


diffused  spirit  with  which  there  can  be  no  warm 
human  communion.  Wherever  God  has  been 
truly  known  it  has  always  been  by  the  way  of 
revelation.  He  never  “  left  himself  without 
witness,”  St.  Paul  told  the  pagans  of  Lystra, 
but  that  revelation  has  been  progressive  and 
disclosed  in  the  natural  order  of  the  world,  in 
the  human  conscience,  in  the  judgment  upon 
nations  and  particularly  in  the  life  and  develop¬ 
ment  of  one  people  Israel.  To  the  fathers  God 
spake  “in  many  forms  and  fashions”  (Heb. 
1 :  1 ;  Moffat).  Once  for  all  He  has  spoken  in 
His  Son  the  final  word  to  man ;  in  this  way  He 
has  crowned  the  unfolding  revelation  of  His 
character.  “  The  Word  was  made  flesh  and 
dwelt  among  us.”  Such  is  the  Christian  faith. 
And  its  implication  is  that  in  Christ  man  really 
sees  what  God  is  like,  so  far  as  man  needs  to 
know  Him.  Christ  perfectly  reveals  Him.  In 
Rome  a  mirror  conveniently  placed  upon  a 
table  reflects  perfectly  a  masterpiece  of  Michael 
Angelo  painted  upon  the  ceiling.  Visitors  no 
longer  stretch  their  necks  to  behold  the  painting 
above  them,  they  can  behold  it  at  their  ease. 
Jesus  brought  God  to  our  very  door,  He  was 
the  mirror  of  God.  He  that  hath  seen  Him 
hath  seen  the  Father. 

There  is  more  than  this,  however.  Jesus 
came  not  only  to  reveal  God  to  men ;  He  came, 


68  ‘^THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH^^ 


savingly,  to  bring  us  to  God.  “  For  us  men 
and  our  salvation  he  came  down  from  heaven.” 
‘‘  He  suffered  for  sins  once  for  all  that  he 
might  bring  us  to  God.”  The  Incarnation 
therefore  is  the  central  truth  of  Christianity. 
Had  there  been  no  crib  there  would  have  been 
no  cross  and  no  earthly  life,  no  decisive  and 
authoritative  teaching,  no  culminating  sacrifice. 
The  life  and  work  of  Jesus  are  meaningless 
apart  from  the  central  faith  of  the  Incarnation. 
If  it  falls,  all  else  falls  with  it.  If  it  be  true 
everything  else  is  explained.  The  Christian 
Church  believes  that  our  Lord  was  preexistent 
and  “  came  down  from  heaven  ”  for  man's  re¬ 
demption.  This  belief,  of  course,  carries  with 
it  tremendous  implications,  which  we  must  face. 
We  are  bound  to  ask  if  it  is  true  and  what  it 
involves  for  human  life. 

The  first  thing  we  have  to  do  is  to  put  our¬ 
selves  at  the  proper  point  of  view  for  the  under¬ 
standing  of  this  truth.  How  came  it  to  pass 
that  such  an  extraordinary  doctrine  as  this  ever 
came  into  existence,  and  possessed  the  intellect, 
the  conscience  and  the  heart  of  the  Christian 
Church  ?  Let  us  understand  clearly  that  it  did 
not  begin  as  a  theory  to  which  certain  facts 
were  fitted — that  is,  the  apostles  did  not  start 
with  this  as  an  hypothesis  to  explain  a  preju¬ 
diced  theology.  The  origin  of  Jesus,  it  must 


‘‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH”  69 


be  remembered,  was  hidden  from  His  relatives, 
hidden  from  the  people  of  Nazareth  where  He 
was  brought  up,  hidden  from  His  own  dis¬ 
ciples  for  the  first  two  years  of  His  ministry. 
Let  us  try  and  place  ourselves  in  imagination, 
at  the  point  of  time  and  space  where  Jesus  first 
met  His  disciples.  What  was  it  that  drew 
them  to  Him?  It  was  no  dogma  of  His 
Divinity ;  no  doctrine  of  His  Incarnation ;  they 
came  to  Him  because  they  could  not  help  it. 
He  said  to  them,  “  Follow  me,”  and,  yielding  to 
the  magnetism  of  His  unique  personality,  they 
followed  Him ;  but  they  did  not  then  know  all 
that  He  was.  To  them,  at  that  time.  He  was 
merely  a  great  Rabbi,  an  unique  teacher,  who 
spake  as  man  had  never  spoken,  and  they  could 
not  resist  Him.  They  accepted  Him  as  the 
leader  of  a  new  movement.  His  personality 
constituting  its  central  authority.  It  was  not 
until  Jesus  had  been  with  them  for  two  years 
that  He  put  the  decisive  question:  “  Whom  do 
you  say  I  am  ?  ”  They  took  Him  at  first  for 
what  He  was,  not  understanding  the  mystery  of 
His  person  at  all. 

We  must  further  understand  that  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  Incarnation  arose  amongst  a  people 
to  whom  the  very  idea  was  foreign.  The  Jews 
were  monotheists  who  had  no  idea  whatever  of 
an  incarnation  of  their  God.  The  pagans  had 


70  ^‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH’’ 


gods  galore  in  the  shape  of  men.  There  were 
plenty  of  “  incarnations  of  a  kind  in  the 
pagan  world,  as  every  student  knows.  But  we 
repeat  the  Jews  themselves  did  not  possess  the 
idea,  yet  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  arose 
amongst  these  monotheistic  people.  We  must 
face  that  fact.  The  disciples  were,  at  first, 
Unitarians;  they  were  not  Trinitarians  in  any 
sense  until  Jesus  came;  then  they  were  com¬ 
pelled  by  the  necessities  of  the  case  to  revise 
their  Jewish  belief  and  to  become  Trinitarian 
Christians.  They  encountered  the  mighty 
person  of  the  Lord  Christ.  They  saw  His 
uniqueness;  they  beheld  His  mighty  works. 
They  saw  Him  crucified  and  buried,  yet  on  the 
third  day  they  saw  Him  alive  again.  They  had 
“  many  infallible  proofs  ”  of  all  this,  as  St. 
Luke  puts  it.  When  finally  He  ceased  to  be 
seen  of  their  mortal  eyes,  they  experienced 
afresh  His  mighty  power  at  Pentecost  and  on¬ 
ward.  His  Spirit  descended,  transforming 
them  and  fusing  the  units  of  the  apostolic  band 
into  one  common  life. 

He  had  promised  to  send  them  His  Spirit 
and  He  kept  His  word.  They  knew  through 
their  spiritual  experience  that  He  was  alive  and 
at  work  on  the  other  side  of  the  veil.  The  ex¬ 
perience  grew  and  deepened.  Through  Him 
they  came  to  know  the  Father — really  know 


^‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH”  71 


Him.  And  then  it  was  that  the  Holy  Spirit  led 
them  into  the  further  truth  concerning  J  esus — 
they  came  to  see  who  He  was.  The  fact  of 
the  Incarnation  had  been  present  to  them  from 
the  beginning:  now  it  was  formulated  into  a 
faith.  “  It  was  the  necessary  way  of  account¬ 
ing  for  Jesus  Christ.”  The  fact  of  Christ  be¬ 
fore  and  after  the  resurrection  compelled  faith 
in  the  Incarnation:  it  was  their  intellectual 
and  moral  response  to  the  revelation  of  God  in 
the  life  of  Christ. 

Another  important  thing  to  remember  is  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  arose  early. 
It  is  one  of  the  earliest  Christian  truths. 
The  early  letters  of  St.  Paul  contain  it.  To 
the  Corinthians  St.  Paul  wrote :  He  was  rich 
yet  for  your  sakes  he  became  poor”  (2  Cor. 
8:9).  The  statement  is  not  made  in  the  way 
of  dogmatic  teaching:  the  apostle  is  employing 
a  fundamental  Christian  fact  for  an  ethical 
purpose:  as  a  moral  dynamic,  in  fact.  It  was 
“  the  grace  of  the  Lord,  Jesus  Christ  ”  which 
led  Him  to  stoop.  He  was  rich,  he  became 
poor.”  The  later  and  fuller  statement  of  the 
truth  of  the  Incarnation  is  here  in  substance. 
In  an  even  earlier  letter  St.  Paul  refers  to  our 
Lord  as  “  the  second  man,  the  Lord  from 
heaven.”  He  introduces  it,  as  it  were,  inci¬ 
dentally  and  not  in  a  dogmatic  manner.  It  is 


72  ‘‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH^^ 


natural  to  him  so  to  speak  of  Jesus.  We 
cannot  explain  away  creative  words  Lke  these. 
They  are  evidence — out  of  much  more — that 
quite  early  in  the  Church  the  Incarnation  was 
an  article  of  faith.  The  rationalistic  theory 
that  the  dogma  of  the  Incarnation  was  legen¬ 
dary  and  slowly  grew  is  at  total  variance  with 
the  facts.  Here,  before  the  year  60  a.  d.,  it 
existed  in  substantial  form. 

There  was  no  time  for  legendary  growth. 
Legends  do  not  spring  up  in  twenty  years,  and 
never  under  the  eyes  of  the  generation  which 
knew  the  living  actors  of  the  undoubted  history. 
Besides,  the  form  of  the  statements  in  the 
Pauline  writings  are  entirely  removed  from  the 
form  which  legend  usually  takes. 

There  are  other  documents,  however,  with 
which  we  have  to  reckon.  The  Epistle  to  the 
Philippians  was  written  in  the  year  59-60  a.  d. 
In  the  second  chapter  of  this  epistle  the  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation  is  fully  developed.  “  Have 
this  mind  in  you,  which  was  also  in  Jesus 
Christ:  who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  counted 
it  not  a  prize  to  be  on  an  equality  with  God, 
but  emptied  himself,  taking  the  form  of  a  serv¬ 
ant,  being  made  in  the  likeness  of  men;  and 
being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled 
himself,  becoming  obedient,  even  unto  death, 
yea,  the  death  of  the  cross.’*  Or  in  the  still 


‘^THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH 73 


more  vivid  words  of  Weymouth^s  version: 
“  Let  the  same  disposition  be  in  you  which  was 
in  Jesus  Christ.  Although  from  the  beginning 
He  had  the  nature  of  God,  He  did  not  reckon 
His  equality  with  God  a  treasure  to  be  tightly 
grasped.  Nay,  He  stripped  Himself  of  His 
glory,  and  took  on  Him  the  nature  of  a  bond 
servant  by  becoming  a  man  [we  are  horn  men; 
He  became  one]  like  other  men.  And  being 
recognized  as  truly  human.  He  humbled  Him¬ 
self,  and  even  stooped  to  die,  yea,  to  die  on  a 
cross.’'  In  another  of  the  early  writings  of  the 
New  Testament,  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians, 
occurs  the  sentence  (Chapter  4:4):  When 
the  fulness  of  the  time  was  come,  God  sent 
forth  his  Son,  born  of  a  woman,  born  under 
the  law,  that  he  might  redeem  them  which 
were  under  the  law  that  we  might  receive  the 
adoption  of  sons.” 

When  these  earlier  writings  are  duly  ana¬ 
lyzed  they  yield  the  following  result:  The  early 
Church  believed  that  Jesus  Christ  was  origi¬ 
nally  in  the  form  and  nature  of  God.”  Equality 
with  God  was  His  by  right.  He  did  not  con¬ 
sider  it  a  “  prize  ”  to  be  grasped  at.  But  in 
becoming  incarnate  ‘‘  He  emptied  himself  ” — 
or,  He  stripped  himself  of  his  glory.” 
Whatever  the  self-emptying  meant,  it  zvas  His 
ozvn  act:  that  is  the  important  point  to  grasp. 


74  ^‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH’’ 


He  had  the  right  and  the  power  to  do  it.  Fur¬ 
ther  He  entered  into  human  conditions  at  a 
definite  point  in  time.  He  came  across  the 
barrier  that  divides  us  from  the  invisible  world 
and  entered  fully  into  human  conditions.  He 
appeared  at  the  appointed  moment  “  in  the 
fulness  of  time/'  when  the  purposes  of  God 
were  ripe  for  His.  manifestation.  There  was  no 
accident  about  His  appearance;  there  was,  on 
the  contrary,  a  definite  plan  and  order  in  it. 
The  purpose  of  His  coming  was  to  redeem  men, 
to  bring  them  to  their  full  sonship.  Such  is 
the  earliest  full  dress  doctrine  of  the  Incarna¬ 
tion  as  given  in  the  earliest  writings  of  the  New 
Testament  which  are  dated  before  the  year  60 

A.  D. 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  reasonable,  therefore, 
to  deny  the  fact  that,  according  to  our  docu¬ 
ments,  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Incarna¬ 
tion  in  its  main  outline  was  firmly  established 
within  thirty  years  of  the  Crucifixion.  But 
this,  of  course,  in  itself  offers  no  proof  of  the 
truth  of  that  doctrine.  We  must  therefore  go 
on  to  ask  whether  the  Incarnation  such  as 
Christianity  sets  it  forth  is  possible,  is  it  true 
to  the  nature  of  things:  is  it  true  to  fact? 

Within  so  limited  a  space  it  is  not  possible  to 
deal  adequately  with  the  many  implications  of 
this  truth  in  metaphysical  and  psychological 


^‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH”  75 


directions.  We  must  keep  to  the  main  ques¬ 
tion.  To  the  “  catholic  ”  doctrine  of  the  In¬ 
carnation  two  main  objections  have  been  of¬ 
fered:  the  greatness  of  God  and  the  insignifi¬ 
cance  of  man.  How  can  the  Infinite  become 
the  finite?  we  are  asked.  How  is  it  possible 
to  conceive  of  the  Eternal  God  visiting  one  of 
the  small  planets  and  becoming  man  in  order  to 
redeem  our  pigmy  race  ?  And  does  it  not  mean 
that  His  dwelling  here  withdraws  Him  from 
the  rest  of  creation?  To  argue  thus  is  to  mis¬ 
conceive  the  entire  thing. 

The  thought  of  God’s  greatness  is  an  old 
thought,  and  is  often  expressed  in  the  Old 
Testament;  yet  it  was  not  an  obstacle  to  a 
further  conception — i.  e., Thus  saith  the  high 
and  lofty  One  that  inhabiteth  Eternity,  I  dwell 
with  him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite  and  humble 
spirit.”  And  again:  “  Will  God  dwell  with  men 
upon  the  earth  ?  ”  But  “  greatness  ”  is  not  the 
greatest  thing  in  God.  The  greatest  thing  in 
Him  is  love.  The  greatness  of  God  must  not 
be  set  over  against  the  littleness  of  man:  it  is 
rather  the  Fatherhood  of  God  that  calls  in  the 
immensity  of  its  love  for  the  loving  homage  of 
His  earthly  children  and  it  is  that  love  in  Christ 
which  recreates  the  lost  sonship. 

God  is  love.  Love  can  stoop.  That  is  its 
great  power,  its  great  distinction.  But  love 


76  ‘‘THE  WOED  WAS  MADE  FLESH 


goes  further;  it  is  bound  to  communicate  it¬ 
self. 

Wherever  there  is  love  there  is  self-propaga¬ 
tion,  self-communication.  Condescension  is  the 
virtue  of  the  great;  aloofness  is  the  folly  of  the 
small.  The  greater  a  man  is,  the  more  he  can 
stoop;  the  smaller  a  man  is,  the  less  is  he  ca¬ 
pable  of  doing  so.  In  human  society  we  find  it 
is  the  great  man  who  stoops.  If  then  with  our 
imperfections  this  is  true  of  humanity  may  we 
not  apply  the  principles  of  elimination  and  of 
eminence  to  God,  and  say  that  the  very  great¬ 
ness  of  God,  who  is  love,  so  far  from  prevent¬ 
ing  Him  stooping,  commits  Him  to  the  supreme 
act  of  condescension?  We  are  not  crushed  by 
the  thought  of  God’s  greatness  now  that  we 
know  Him,  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  We 
are  able  to  believe  in  His  condescension  because 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  greatness  of  God,  then, 
so  far  from  being  a  reason  against  the  Incarna¬ 
tion,  is  an  urgent  reason  in  its  favour. 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  second  objection^ — 
that  of  the  insignificance  of  man?  When  we 
remember  the  almost  illimitable  universe  of 
which  we  are  part,  and  then  reflect  upon  the 
small  part  that  man  plays  in  it,  it  seems  rea¬ 
sonable  at  first  to  believe  that  man  is  far  too 
insignificant  to  be  the  object  of  such  an  event 
as  the  Incarnation.  But  just  as  we  should 


‘‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH 77 


object  to  the  common  idea  of  God’s  greatness, 
so  should  we  also  object  to  the  common  idea 
of  man’s  insignificance.  It  is  quite  a  false  as¬ 
sumption  that  man’s  rank  in  nature  is  deter¬ 
mined  by  his  situation  in  space. 

Man’s  greatness  consists  in  his  kinship  with 
God  and  in  his  potentialities  as  a  redeemed 
being  in  Christ.  That  forms  for  us  the  nexus 
of  the  Incarnation.  God  is  great  by  love;  we 
are  great  in  virtue  of  our  likeness  to  Him. 
And  those  two  things  show  us  not  the  impossi¬ 
bility,  but  the  possibility  and  even  the  necessity 
of  an  Incarnation.  The  smallness  of  our 
planet  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
reality  of  the  great  redemptive  work  Christ 
came  to  accomplish.  Our  planet  is  man’s  home 
and  it  is  fitting  that  in  the  place  of  his  sin  the 
restoration  should  be  given.  It  is  a  pity  when 
men  confound  size  with  greatness,  as  do  they 
who  imagine  that  the  smallness  of  our  planet 
makes  the  Incarnation  incredible. 

It  is  an  entirely  irrelevant  question  whether 
other  planets  are  inhabited  or  not  and  whether 
the  Incarnation  applies  to  them;  what  matters 
is  this — that  ive  are  sick  and  need  a  cure  and 
that  the  one  medicine  for  our  sickness  is  found 
in  Christ.  If  there  are  beings  on  other  planets 
who  have  sinned  and  need  redemption  the  love 
of  God  is  quite  equal  to  dealing  with  them. 


78  ‘^THE  WOKD  WAS  MADE  FLESH’’ 


But  so  far  as  we  are  concerned  we  have  to  deal 
with  the  fact  which  has  materialized  under  our 
own  eyes.  God  has  been  really  manifested  in 
Jesus  Christ  upon  our  earth — that  is  the  fact 
for  us — and  in  that  fact  He  has  revealed  God 
to  man  and  man  to  himself. 

Jesus  was  not  another  specimen  of  our 
spoiled  humanity,  He  was  a  revelation  of  the 
true  type  after  which  we  were  created.  “  The 
head’ of  every  man  is  Christ.”  But  He  brought 
not  only  revelation  but  redemption  and  dy¬ 
namic.  As  He  brought  God  to  man,  He  brings 
man  to  God,  by  His  one  sacrifice  and  by  the 
continued  working  of  His  Spirit.  And  the 
truth  of  it  all  is  shown  in  Christian  experience. 
Through  Christ  we  really  know  God  and  be¬ 
come  one  with  Him.  Jesus  is  ‘‘  of  the  value  ” 
of  God  to  us  and  if  we  reject  that  value  then 
we  have  no  God  at  all  of  whom  we  can  be 
certain,  and  who  alone  can  satisfy  our  hearts. 

The  more  the  matter  is  considered  the  more 
will  it  become  clear  that  the  alternative  is  either 
the  Christian  truth  of  the  Incarnation  or  a 
series  of  hypotheses  concerning  God  which  can 
neither  content  the  reason,  satisfy  the  heart, 
nor  save  from  sin.  For  all  these  hypotheses 
run  down  sooner  or  later  into  pantheism,  and 
pantheism,  despite  its  intellectual  charm  for 
some,  does,  as  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  act  as 


‘‘THE  WORD  WAS  MADE  FLESH 79 


an  acid  upon  the  heart,  slowly  but  surely  de¬ 
stroying  the  inner  fibre.  As  a  theory  it  is 
nebulous:  as  a  moral  force  it  is  hopeless.  The 
proof  of  this  is  written  large  in  hislory. 
Pantheism  in  any  of  its  forms  dissipates  God, 
making  of  Him  nothing  more  than  a  living 
atmosphere  through  which  we  thrust  our  hands, 
but  with  which  we  can  never  commune.  The 
Incarnation,  on  the  contrary,  brings  God  to  our 
very  door.  He  touches  both  our  senses  and 
our  spirits.  It  definitely  reveals  His  personal¬ 
ity  and  shows  Him,  in  Christ,  as  caring  for  the 
single  soul.  And  this  is  what  men  want  to 
know; — whether,  or  not,  God  cares  for  the 
individual.  The  future  will  not  and  cannot 
be  with  the  pantheistic  creed  in  any  of  its 
forms — it  is  impossible.  The  future  belongs 
to  the  faith  which  has  at  its  heart  the  con¬ 
fession — “  God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  unto  himself.’’ 


VI 


BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY  ’’ 

WE  have  now  to  embark  upon  an 
exceedingly  delicate  study  which  it 
is  not  possible  to  avoid,  if  we  would 
be  true  to  the  story  of  the  Gospels,  to  the  uni¬ 
versal  belief  of  the  Church,  and  to  ourselves. 
The  Incarnation  of  our  Lord  is  set  forth  in  the 
New  Testament,  unvaryingly  as  the  act  of  God 
by  which  He,  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ, 
entered  into  humanity  to  redeem  it.  He  “  came 
down  from  heaven,”  as  the  creed  puts  it.  He 
did  not  spring  from  the  earth  as  we  do,  but  He 
was  the  divine  messenger  “  sent  ”  by  the  Father 
from  the  other  side.  Now  it  is  clear  that  if 
this  be  so,  we  are  in  the  presence,  not  of  an 
entirely  new  beginning,  as  is  the  case  with  all 
human  beings  born  upon  this  planet,  but  of 
a  transition  from  one  state  to  another.  If 
Jesus  Christ  existed  before  Bethlehem;  if  He 
is  the  Lord  from  heaven  ” ;  if  He  ‘‘  was  rich 
and  became  poor  ”  for  our  sakes,  then  in  what 
way  did  He  cross  the  border  and  reach  us? 
How  was  the  transition  effected  ?  The  answer 

So 


‘^BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY’’  81 


of  the  Christian  Church  for  nearly  two  thou¬ 
sand  years  has  been  “  He  was  incarnate  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  of  the  Virgin  Mary/'  There  was 
the  human  mother,  but  not  the  human  father. 

Now  it  is  well  known  that  in  our  time  there 
is  widespread  hesitation  about  accepting  this 
part  of  the  Church’s  creed,  and  that  not 
amongst  coarse-grained  people  to  whom  the 
most  delicate  story  in  the  world  would  occasion 
an  outburst  of  gross  jesting,  but  also  amongst 
earnest  people  who  are  prepared  to  fight  to  the 
last  ditch  for  their  Christian  faith.  These  can¬ 
not  be  treated  with  contumely:  we  must  listen 
to  them  and  then  see  if  there  be  not  some  way 
of  understanding. 

Some  men,  of  course,  reject  the  miraculous 
in  to  to.  They  do  so  in  the  name  of  a 
“  science,”  which  has  nothing  whatever  to  sup¬ 
port  them,  and  which  they  have  no  right  to 
invoke.  They  have  made  up  their  minds  that 
nature  is  an  enclosed  system,  that  its  “  laws  ” 
are  irrevocably  fixed,  that  God  is  a  prisoner  in 
His  own  universe  and  that  there  is  no  room 
whatever  for  the  free  play  of  the  Divine  Will. 
Such  an  attitude  has  nothing  to  support  it, 
either  in  science  or  philosophy.  It  is  not  war¬ 
ranted  by  our  slender  knowledge  of  the  uni¬ 
verse,  nor  by  our  experience  of  the  action  of 
God  in  human  history.  It  is  not  with  this  class 


82  ‘^BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY’’ 


of  persons  that  we  are  at  present  concerned, 
but  rather  with  that  class  which  professes  that 
the  story  of  the  virgin  birth  of  our  Lord  “  com¬ 
plicates  our  Christian  faith. 

It  is  thought  to  be  an  ‘‘  encumbrance.” 

The  Divinity  of  our  Lord,”  they  say,  is  not 
bound  up  with  His  human  origin,”  and  it  is  a 
serious  thing  to  stake  everything  upon  a  story 
which  has  so  slender  a  foundation.  In  pass¬ 
ing  it  may  be  remarked  that  from  one  point  of 
view  it  is  quite  possible  to  treat  the  two  things 
separately.  And  in  this  view,  the  Divinity  of 
our  Lord  does  not  depend  upon  the  truth  or 
otherwise  of  the  miraculous  birth  stories.  His 
deity  would  be  just  as  resplendent  apart  from 
any  narrative  of  His  entry  into  the  world. 
The  Church  does  not  believe  Him  to  be  Divine 
because  of  the  story  of  the  Virgin  Birth:  it 
believes  the  story  of  the  Virgin  Birth  because 
it  so  admirably  fits  in  with  what  we  know 
Jesus  Christ  to  have  been  and  to  be.  But  this 
is  to  anticipate. 

On  what  grounds  is  the  Virgin  Birth  chal¬ 
lenged?  Mainly,  four:  First,  it  is  said,  truly 
of  course,  that  the  story  is  found  in  only  two 
of  the  Gospels  and  nowhere  else  in  the  New 
Testament.  Second,  it  is  pointed  out  that  in 
the  Orient  it  was  not  uncommon  to  transfigure 
after  their  death,  the  births  of  great  men,  cast- 


‘‘BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY’^  83 


ing  the  glamour  and  the  glory  of  their  later 
life  upon  the  gray  sky  which  heralded  their 
dawn.  We  are  also  told  that  there  are  virgin 
birth  stories  in  other  religions.  The  suggestion 
therefore  is  that  the  Gospel  story  of  our  Lord’s 
birth  belongs  to  this  order  and  it  is  therefore 
legendary.  Third,  the  silence  of  the  Epistles 
concerning  this  great  event  is  regarded  as 
evidence  that  it  was  not  known  in  the  primi¬ 
tive  Church,  or  if  it  was,  that  it  was  not  an 
article  of  faith.  Finally,  of  course,  it  is  mi¬ 
raculous,  and  as  Matthew  Arnold  said  with 
his  air  of  finality,  “  miracles  do  not  happen.” 
These  are  the  chief  grounds  upon  which  the 
Bible  story  is  doubted  or  denied.  Let  us  ex¬ 
amine  them  carefully. 

The  fact  is  admitted  that  in  only  two  of  the 
Gospels  is  there  a  narrative  of  our  Lord’s 
miraculous  birth.  But  it  is  significant  that 
these  are  the  only  two  Gospels  which  mention 
His  birth  at  all  and  in  each  of  them  the  Virgin 
Birth  is  recorded  as  the  means  by  which  He 
entered  our  world.  Neither  Mark  nor  John 
deal  with  our  Lord’s  earlier  years  at  all.  Both 
of  them  commence  their  narratives  with  the 
story  of  the  opening  of  His  public  ministry. 
But  is  it  reasonable  to  say  that  because  these 
two  evangelists  never  mention  the  early  years 
of  our  Lord’s  life,  there  were  no  early  years? 


84  ^^BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY’’ 

Yet  if  the  argument  derived  from  the  silence  of 
these  writers  were  pressed  to  its  legitimate  con¬ 
clusion,  this  is  where  we  should  be  landed.  It 
is  quite  gratuitous  to  assume  that  the  writer  of 
the  earliest  Gospel  (Mark)  and  the  writer  of 
the  latest  (John)  knew  nothing  whatever  of 
the  story  of  the  Virgin  Birth.  How  can  any 
man  say  that?  It  was  not  the  purpose  of  St. 
Mark  to  record  anything  whatever  of  the  early 
years  of  our  Lord’s  life.  But  it  is  noticeable 
that  when  he  begins  to  write  he  instantly  strikes 
a  key-note  which  perfectly  harmonizes  with  the 
miraculous  in  the  person  of  Christ,  “  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son 
of  God.” 

So  also  there  are  implications  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  which  harmonize  completely  with  the 
stories  in  Matthew  and  Luke,  although  the 
actual  story  of  the  birth  of  Christ  is  never  re¬ 
ferred  to.  So,  also,  is  it  with  regard  to  the 
silence  of  the  Epistles.  If  it  be  pressed  that 
there  was  no  miraculous  birth  of  Christ  because 
none  is  recorded  in  the  Epistles,  the  reply  again 
would  be  that  the  Epistles  never  mention  any 
details  of  our  Lord’s  human  life;  shall  we 
therefore  argue  that  there  was  no  human  life 
lived  in  Galilee  and  Judea?  The  argument 
from  silence  therefore  is  an  inconsequence — ^we 
can  rule  it  out. 


‘^BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY’^  85 


But  coming  to  the  two  positive  narratives 
that  we  possess  of  our  Lord’s  birth,  how  are 
we  to  account  for  them  if  they  are  not  genuine? 
There  is  absolutely  no  warrant  on  “  critical  ’’ 
grounds  for  rejecting  them  as  interpolations,  or 
late  additions  to  an  original  and  simpler  story. 
Whoever  rejects  them  does  so  on  quite  other 
than  literary  grounds.  It  must  be  remembered 
further  that  one  of  the  writers  who  tells  the 
story  was  a  doctor — Luke  the  beloved  physi¬ 
cian,” — who  opens  his  narrative  of  the  life  of 
Christ  by  saying  that  he  had  traced  the  course 
of  all  things  accurately  from  the  first.”  On 
what  ground  of  sane  literary  criticism  then  has 
any  the  right  to  say  that  the  stories  thus  in¬ 
troduced  must  necessarily  be  untrue  or  leg¬ 
endary  ?  There  is  another  consideration.  The 
historicity  of  St.  Luke  is  now  unchallenged. 
Harnack  has  made  clear,  once  and  for  all,  that 
fact.  But  this  carries  with  it  important  impli¬ 
cations.  Most  of  Luke’s  writing  was  completed 
before  Paul’s  martyrdom — as  a  careful  ex¬ 
amination  of  his  two  books  shows.  St.  Paul 
died  in  the  late  sixties.  This  means  that  the 
birth  stones  were  in  circulation  and  accepted  by 
the  Church  during  the  lifetime  of  the  first 
generation  of  people  who  knew  and  followed 
Jesus.  They  were  not  introduced  in  a  later 
age.  The  stories  in  the  two  Gospels  differ 


86  ‘^BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  IMARY’" 

from  each  other:  they  are  quite  independent, 
and  they  are  complementary  and  not  con¬ 
tradictory  as  is  sometimes  supposed. 

Those  who  are  troubled  about  the  supposed 
“  legendary  ”  character  of  the  narratives  would 
be  soon  reassured  were  they  carefully  to  con¬ 
trast  the  New  Testament  story  with  the  legends 
they  are  supposed  to  resemble.  There  is  noth¬ 
ing  whatever  in  common  between  these 
grotesque  inventions  and  the  sweet  story  of  the 
Gospels.  Legends  gathered  around  the  birth 
of  the  Buddha,  and  the  pagan  world  had  many 
similar  stories.  But  zvhat  stories  they  were,  of 
lustful  gods  engendering  a  divine  progeny:  of 
trees  bending  before  the  miraculous  infant,  of 
milk  exuding  from  the  ground,  of  the  sun  veil¬ 
ing  its  face  and  the  moon  becoming  bright  as 
the  sun.  Had  the  New  Testament  writers  de¬ 
sired  to  introduce  legend  into  their  stories  they 
had  a  mass  of  material  upon  which  to  draw,  as 
the  apocryphal  writings  show.  But  the  fact 
that  they  rejected  it  is  evidence  that  they  were 
not  romanticists  but  historians. 

The  Gospel  story  of  the  birth  of  Christ  is  dis¬ 
tinguished  for  its  wonderful  reserve,  its  deli¬ 
cacy  and  reverence.  ‘‘  The  whole  story  is  as 
pure  as  the  mountain  air,’’  says  Dr.  Fairbairn. 
There  is  nothing  whatever  of  the  atmosphere  of 
legend  about  it.  It  has  to  be  remembered  also 


<^BOEN  OP  THE  VIRGIN  MARY’’  87 


that  the  history  belongs  to  Jewish  soil,  upon 
which  pagan  myths  were  never  allowed  to 
flourish.  The  monotheistic  Jew,  become  Chris¬ 
tian,  would  never  suffer  himself  to  be  deflled 
by  the  abominable  stories  of  pagan  mythology 
which  with  all  his  heart  he  loathed. 

It  is  time,  however,  that  we  passed  to  the 
positive  side  of  the  matter.  If  only  two  Gos¬ 
pels  actually  record  the  miraculous  birth  of  our 
Lord,  the  rest  of  the  New  Testament  presup¬ 
poses  and  demands  it.  ‘‘  The  Word  was  made 
flesh  and  dwelt  among  us !  ”  So  deep  a  state¬ 
ment  as  that  demands  something  exceptional 
in  the  coming  of  Jesus.  So  does  the  great 
statement  of  Paul  that  He  was  in  the  form 
of  God  and  took  the  form  of  a  servant  and 
emptied  himself.”  The  Virgin  Birth  at  least 
harmonizes  with  these  statements.  If  our  Lord 
was  really  preexistent,  in  what  other  way  could 
He  have  entered  the  world?  The  mode  of  our 
coming  into  life  is  known  to  all  of  us.  We 
begin  life  for  the  first  time  at  the  moment  of 
our  human  generation.  But  when  He  came 
He  did  not  begin  life  for  the  first  time.  If  He 
was  preexistent  He  must  have  crossed  the 
barrier  into  human  conditions:  if  He  was  not 
preexistent,  how  in  any  true  sense  can  we  speak 
of  an  incarnation  at  all?  And  what  authority 
is  Jesus  Christ  to  us  if  He  did  not,  as  He  said 


88  ‘‘BOEN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MAEY’^ 


He  did,  come  to  this  earth  from  that  heavenly 
world  ? 

‘‘We  cannot,”  says  Dr.  Peake,  “  discuss  the 
question  in  a  vacuum.  Were  we  treating  the 
case  of  some  ordinary  man  for  whom  this  claim 
was  put  forward,  we  might  excusably  put  it 
aside  on  the  ground  of  the  inherent  improb¬ 
ability  of  the  event.  But,  in  this  case,  we  are 
speaking  of  One  whom  we  regard  as  the  Son 
of  God,  and  we  may  feel  that  in  a  person  so 
supernatural  the  Virgin  Birth  was  natural. 
The  very  character  of  the  narrative  pleads  in  its 
favour T  This  is  admirably  said.  The  Virgin 
Birth  is  fitting:  it  fits  Christ,  it  harmonizes 
exactly  with  Him.  The  Virgin  Birth  guar¬ 
antees  the  continuity  of  His  life.  He  is  the 
same  Christ  here  as  there:  He  simply  passed 
through  a  narrow  channel  to  His  life  upon 
earth.  Further,  as  Dr.  Gore  puts  it,  “  the 
Virgin  Birth  fits  in  with  His  universal  imper¬ 
sonality.”  He  belongs  to  humanity.  He  is 
neither  Jew  nor  Greek  nor  Roman — He  is  the 
Son  of  Man.  With  the  elimination  of  the 
human  father,  the  national  mark,  provincial 
and  restricted,  disappears.  Jesus  belongs  to 
all — that  is  the  miracle.  It  is  not  as  Jew  that 
He  is  ours,  both  Ford  and  Redeemer,  but  as 
the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man,  going 
beyond  all  human  limitations.  He  is  omni- 


‘‘BOEN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MAEY’^  89 


personal  and  not  the  particular  possession  of 
any  nation. 

Moreover,  the  Virgin  Birth  meant  a  break 
with  sinful  heredity.  Our  Lord  took  flesh 
from  His  mother  only.  He  was  not  handi¬ 
capped  from  the  beginning  as  we  are.  He 
came  with  both  hands  free  to  raise  us  and 
to  redeem  us.  He  is  not,”  as  Dr.  Liddon 
says,  “  less  truly  representative  of  our  race 
because  in  Him  it  has  recovered  its  perfec¬ 
tion.” 

There  is  therefore  no  valid  reason  for  dis¬ 
believing  or  doubting  the  story  of  the  Virgin 
Birth.  There  may  be  prejudice  but  this  is  not 
reason.  There  is  on  the  contrary  every  reason 
to  believe  it  if  we  believe  in  Christ  at  all. 
The  two  birth  stories  complement  each  other. 
In  Matthew,  Joseph’s  side  is  stated.  All 
Joseph’s  perplexities  are  set  forth.  In  Luke, 
Mary’s  side  is  given.  He  tells  us  that  Mary 

pondered  these  things  in  her  heart  ”  and  kept 
silence  concerning  them.  We  can  understand 
that  the  time  had  not  arrived  to  speak  of  the 
sacred  mystery.  Joseph,  before  his  death,  told 
his  story,  and  Mary,  in  due  time,  told  hers. 
Luke  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit  gave  it  to  a 
Church  that  already  believed  in  our  Lord's 
Divinity  on  other  grounds.  It  is  a  fitting  ac¬ 
count  of  the  manner  in  which  Divine  love  be- 


90  ^‘BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY’* 


came  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh, 
for  our  salvation. 

There  is  a  great  deal  then  to  be  said  for  the 
dogma  of  the  Virgin  Birth.  It  is  not  wise  to 
brush  it  aside  with  a  mere  gesture  of  impa¬ 
tience,  as  if  it  were  unworthy  of  consideration. 
Difficulties  there  may  be,  and  are,  in  believing 
any  story  that  involves  an  exceptional  action 
on  the  part  of  God.  But  is  any  man  entitled 
in  virtue  of  the  limited  knowledge  we  possess 
of  the  laws  ”  of  the  Universe  to  say  that 
nothing  can  happen  which  lies  outside  the 
system  of  thought  we  have  constructed?  It 
was  Mr.  Huxley,  by  no  means  an  orthodox 
believer,  who  warned  us  against  the  “  conceit '' 
of  imagining  that  our  exceedingly  limited 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  nature  gave  us  the 
right  to  pronounce  dogmatically  upon  all  ques¬ 
tions  in  heaven  and  earth.  Biologically  the 
Virgin  Birth  of  our  Lord  may  be  encompassed 
with  mystery,  but  is  that  sufficient  ground  for 
rejecting  it?  The  question  we  ought  to  con¬ 
sider  is  whether  or  not  it  fits  in  naturally  with 
all  that  we  know  of  Jesus.  And  can  there  be 
any  doubt  what  the  plain  answer  should  be? 

The  Incarnation  was  a  revelation  of  God. 

In  inorganic  life  God  has  revealed  His  wis¬ 
dom  and  power;  in  organic  life  He  has  revealed 
His  life;  in  human  life  He  has  revealed  His 


‘^BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY^’  91 


heart.”  But  who,  to  look  at  man  as  he  is  to¬ 
day,  would  imagine  him  to  be  a  revelation  of 
God?  What  kind  of  God  is  He  who  is  re¬ 
flected  in  man?  We  evidently  need  a  truer 
revelation  of  God  than  man,  as  we  know  him, 
has  given. 

What  this  world  needed  was  not  the  revela¬ 
tion  of  a  new  specimen  of  our  spoiled  type, 
but  a  revelation  of  the  type  itself.  And  in 
Jesus  Chirst  we  have,  not  another  specimen  of 
an  imperfect  or  marred  race,  but  the  perfect 
and  pure  type  after  which  we  were  created. 
We  rejoice  in  the  Incarnation  because  in  Jesus 
Christ  we  have  a  complete  revelation  of  God 
and  of  man.  Man  cries  out  for  God.  “  Oh, 
that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  Him  I  ” 
Jesus  Christ  alone  completely  answers  that  cry. 

If  Jesus  Christ  be  not  the  Incarnate  One, 
then  our  situation  is  this :  we  are  the  victims  of 
a  gigantic  illusion  and  of  God  we  know  noth¬ 
ing,  and  can  know  nothing  that  the  human 
heart  really  needs  to  know.  But  Christian  ex¬ 
perience  witnesses  to  the  reality  of  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  God  in  Christ.  Through  Him  we 
really  know  God.  Jesus  has  not  displaced 
God  for  us.  He  has  made  Him  the  more  real. 
Christian  people  rejoice  In  the  Divine  light  that 
reaches  them  through  Christ.  It  is  the  one 
light  upon  our  life.  When  that  light  is  re- 


92  ^^BORN  OF  THE  VIRGIN  MARY’’ 


fused  there  remains  nothing  but  darkness. 
God  disappears;  Heaven  is  closed;  destiny  is 
uncertain.  But,  with  Jesus  Christ,  all  is  light 
and  love;  all  is  certain,  and  life  receives  its 
coronation. 


VII 


**  HE  ROSE  AGAIN  THE  THIRD  DAY 
FROM  THE  DEAD 

CHRISTIANITY,  we  have  said,  is  the 
only  serious  great  religion  which  is 
vitally  bound  up  with  a  single  Person. 
The  religions  created  by  men  known  to  history 
are  only  partially  dependent  upon  their  found¬ 
ers.  The  name  of  Mohammed  follows  that  of 
God  in  the  Mussulman  confession  of  faith. 
The  value  of  Mohammed  to  Islam  is  that  he  is 
deemed  to  be  the  “  prophet  of  God.”  Behind 
Mohammedanism,  also,  stands  the  Koran,  a 
book  which,  it  is  claimed,  came  direct  from  God 
and  which  may  not  be  translated.  Mohammed¬ 
anism,  therefore,  is  only  in  a  secondary  way 
dependent  upon  the  erstwhile  Arabian  muleteer. 
It  is  not  so  with  Christianity.  That  depends 
entirely  upon  Christ.  If  He  is  false,  it  is  false. 
Christianity  stands  or  falls  with  Him. 

The  Resurrection  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  keystone  of  the  arch  of  our  Christian  faith. 
Everything  depends  upon  it ;  it  is  for  us  a  fact, 
not  for  speculation,  but  a  fact  for  life.  It  is 

93 


94 


‘‘HE  ROSE  AGAIN 


the  foundation  supporting  our  edifice;  the  title 
deeds  guarding  our  estate.  The  seriousness  of 
it  is  set  forth  by  Paul  in  his  well-known  words: 
“If  Christ  be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain; 
ye  are  yet  in  your  sins.’’  Now,  one  of  two 
things:  either  the  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  profoundest  fact  of  life, 
carrying  with  it  the  farthest  reaching  conse¬ 
quences,  or  it  is  the  greatest  impiety  joined  to 
the  strangest  of  follies.  In  every  age  this  fun¬ 
damental  Christian  belief  has  been  attacked.  In 
our  own  time  the  opposition  is  particularly  keen 
and  bitter. 

Time  was  when  the  opposition  took  the  form 
of  vulgar  derision,  and  laughter  did  duty  for 
reason.  That  phase  has  entirely  passed  away — 
save  for  an  exception  here  and  there.  Educated 
people  no  longer  make  sport  of  any  serious 
religious  belief  whether  they  agree  with  it  or 
not.  The  new  thing,  in  our  time,  is  the  at¬ 
tempt  to  explain  or  to  spiritualize  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion  of  Jesus  on  quite  natural  grounds,  and  so 
to  separate  the  Christ  from  all  with  which  the 
Church  has  associated  Him  during  two  mil¬ 
lenniums. 

The  miracle  is  frankly  denied,  but  it  is 
thought  that,  while  denying  the  miracle,  it  is 
possible  to  retain  an  attenuated  belief  in  the 
resurrection ;  to  guard  its  ethics  while  banishing 


‘‘HE  HOSE  AGAIN’’ 


95 


the  fact.  It  is  sufficient,  says  M.  Loisy,  “  that 
we  salute  Jesus  as  alive,  without  reference  to 
the  method  of  His  rising.  Our  faith  is  in  the 
immortal  life  of  Jesus.”  Professor  Harnack 
distinguishes  between  what  he  calls  the  “  Easter 
message  and  the  Easter  faith.”  We  may  hold 
the  one,  and  deny  the  other.  The  denial  is 
made,  no  doubt  honestly,  in  what  is  supposed 
to  be  the  interests  of  a  pure  spiritual  religion. 
“We  may  surely  believe  Jesus  to  be  alive 
without  committing  ourselves  to  the  story  as 
narrated  in  the  Gospels.  The  account  of  a 
literal  bodily  resurrection  is  an  incubus  to 
faith.  “All  men  rise  ” — so  the  slogan  pro¬ 
ceeds,  “  in  that  their  spirits  survive  that  shock 
of  physical  dissolution  we  call  death.  Jesus 
rose  in  that  sense,  as  we  all  do,  but  the  story  of 
a  miraculous  rising  from  the  dead  is  no  longer 
credible.” 

Now,  this  will  not  do.  It  is  altogether  too 
easy  a  way  of  avoiding  what  all  must  recog¬ 
nize  to  be  a  difficulty  of  reconciling  fact  with 
fact,  although  the  difficulty  is  not  at  all  so  great 
as  some  imagine.  The  Resurrection  of  our 
Lord  is  not  a  question  of  a  man  passing,  in 
an  exceptional  way  into  the  spirit  world:  it  is  a 
question  of  this  particular  Man,  who,  by  gen¬ 
eral  admission,  stands  apart  from  other  men, 
resuming  a  life  which  was  natural  to  Him,  in  a 


96 


KOSB  AGAIN’’ 


way  that  is  quite  unusual  for  common  folk. 
An  unusual  Person  exhibiting  an  unusual 
Power — that  is  the  problem  we  have  to  face, 
since  it  is  the  situation  which  the  Gospels,  with 
uninterrupted  consistency,  set  before  us. 
More  than  this,  a  suggested  spiritualizing  ” 
of  the  story  with  the  purpose  of  avoiding  the 
physical  or  psychical  miracle  to  which  the 
Gospels  bear  witness,  omits  the  main  element  in 
the  case  and  that  element  is  the  Person  of 
Christ  Himself.  We  cannot  treat  the  story  of 
the  resurrection  in  vacuo:  that  is  to  say  as 
detached  from  the  general  Person  of  Christ, 
with  His  unmistakable  character  and  His  re¬ 
markable  claims.  Faith  in  a  spiritual  or  a 
poetic  resurrection  is  not  what  the  Church  is 
built  upon.  If  such  a  faith  could  be  firmly 
established  upon  a  historic  foundation  then  all 

historv  would  have  to  be  rewritten  in  terms 

•/ 

of  a  gigantic  hallucination. 

When  announcing  the  tragedy  of  His  cruci¬ 
fixion  to  His  disciples,  our  Lord  said:  “The 
Son  of  man  must  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of 
the  Gentiles  and  be  crucified,  and  be  raised  the 
third  day.”  Now,  if  He  only  intended  a 
spiritual  resurrection  why  the  introduction  of 
that  phrase  “  the  third  day  ”  ?  It  is  a  mean¬ 
ingless  phrase.  When  the  spirit  “  rises,”  it 
rises  at  once;  it  does  not  wait  until  the  third 


‘'HE  KOSE  AGAIN” 


97 


day.  If,  however,  He  did  not  mean  His  bodily 
resurrection,  then  it  was  utterly  superfluous  to 
add  the  words  “  the  third  day.”  It  is  a  mere 
begging  of  the  question  to  try  and  spiritualize 
the  story.  We  have  to  face  it  frankly.  Is  it 
true  or  not?  Did  Jesus,  or  did  He  not,  rise 
from  the  dead  on  the  third  day,  as  He  pre¬ 
dicted  ? 

In  approaching  the  subject  honesty  demands 
that  we  should  lay  aside  all  prejudice  both  on 
the  side  of  belief  and  of  unbelief.  There  are 
many  Christian  people  who  refuse  to  reason 
about  the  matter;  they  are  content  to  say  that 
they  ‘‘  feel  ”  the  story  must  be  true.  That,  of 
course,  is  a  poor  position  to  assume.  A  man 
may  “  feel  ”  that  a  thing  is  true  in  his  personal 
experience,  but  no  one  can  ‘‘  feel  ”  that  an  his¬ 
toric  fact  is  true.  An  historic  fact  does  not 
depend  upon  our  feeling;  it  lies  outside  our¬ 
selves,  and  it  has  to  be  considered  quite  apart 
from  any  sentiment  or  feeling.  On  the  other 
side  all  prejudice  of  unbelief  should  be  aban¬ 
doned,  such  as  that  which  says,  ‘‘  miracles  do 
not  happen,  therefore  this  never  happened,”  or 
with  a  celebrated  sceptic,  “  No  amount  of 
evidence  would  ever  make  me  believe  that  a 
dead  man  rose  again  to  life.”  When  a  man 
starts  out  with  a  mind  hermetically  sealed 
against  unwelcome  “  evidence,”  and  who  in 


98 


ROSE  AGAIN’* 


advance  forecloses  the  question  by  saying  he 
absolutely  refuses  to  consider  it,  what  place  is 
there  for  reason?  We  lay  aside,  then,  all 
prejudice  of  belief  or  unbelief  and  consider  the 
matter  de  novo. 

Let  us  adopt  the  scientific  method,  pure  and 
simple ;  that  is  to  say,  instead  of  beginning  with 
hypotheses,  let  us  begin  with  those  absolute 
facts  which  nobody  dreams  of  doubting.  We 
begin,  then,  with  five  incontrovertible  facts. 
The  first  is  that  on  Friday,  at  three  o’clock  in 
the  afternoon,  Jesus  really  died  upon  the  Cross. 
Can  there  be  two  opinions  about  that?  Pre¬ 
ceding  His  death  and  hastening  it  were  the 
bloody  sweat  in  Gethsemane,  the  long  agony 
through  the  night,  the  flagellation  under 
Pontius  Pilate,  the  nailing  of  the  Sacred  Flesh 
to  the  wood  of  the  Cross,  the  crucifixion  under 
the  burning  heat  of  the  sun,  and  the  piercing 
of  the  side  with  the  lance  of  the  Roman  sol¬ 
dier.  Following  His  death  was  the  certificate 
given  by  the  Roman  officials  that  the  Person 
taken  down  from  the  Cross  was  really  dead. 
Surely  everybody  will  admit  that  Jesus  Christ 
really  died.  The  second  fact  is  this:  His  dead 
body  was  entombed  and  guarded  by  a  company 
of  Roman  soldiers.  It  was  in  the  grave  during 
the  whole  of  Friday  night  and  the  whole  of 
Saturday.  At  daybreak  on  Sunday  morning 


ROSE  AGAIN’’ 


99 


His  body  was  not  there.  And  that  body  has 
never  been  found.  No  person  ever  set  eyes 
upon  it  apart  from  those  who  alleged  they 
beheld  it  in  a  resurrection  state  on  Easter  Day 
and  for  forty  days  after. 

The  third  fact  is  that  of  the  general  scepti¬ 
cism  of  the  apostles  and  disciples.  It  is  some¬ 
times  gratuitously  affirmed  that  the  apostles 
were  predisposed  to  believe  in  the  Resurrec¬ 
tion;  their  training  and  temperament  led  them 
to  accept  any  miracle  upon  the  slightest  pretext. 
But  what  ground  is  there  for  this  opinion? 
Do  we  find  from  the  only  records  available  that 
the  apostles  were  predisposed  to  believe  in  the 
Resurrection?  On  the  contrary,  we  see  that 
all  of  them  were  confirmed  sceptics.  When 
Mary  of  Magdala  saw  Jesus,  she  did  not  know 
Him ;  she  mistook  Him  for  the  gardener. 
When  the  women  told  the  apostles  they  had 
seen  the  Lord,  “  their  words  seemed  unto  them 
as  idle  tales,  and  they  believed  them  not  ” 
(Luke  24:  11).  Thomas,  on  the  evening 
of  Easter  Day,  when  told  that  Jesus  was 
risen  from  the  dead  and  had  appeared  to  the 
eleven,  flatly  refused  to  believe  the  story.  Does 
that  look  like  a  predisposition  to  believe?  The 
scepticism  amongst  the  disciples  and  apostles 
was  universal ;  none  of  them  believed  the  story 
of  the  Resurrection  at  first.  So  far  from  be- 


100 


KOSE  AGAIN” 


lieving  it,  they  regarded  their  cause  as  lost  and 
some  of  them  were  actually  on  their  way  home 
when  the  reality  of  the  Resurrection  was 
brought  home  to  them  and  their  whole  outlook 
was  changed.  It  is  grossly  unfair  to  the  facts 
as  they  are  reported  for  us  to  pretend  that  the 
apostles  were  susceptible  to  the  suggestion 
that  their  Master  was  risen.  The  evidence  is 
all  in  the  opposite  direction. 

The  fourth  fact  is  the  sudden  general  belief 
in  the  Resurrection.  In  one  hour,  these  sceptics, 
who  refused  to  accept  the  story  told  by  the 
women  who  had  been  to  the  sepulchre,  believed 
that  Jesus  Christ  rose  from  the  dead.  They 
believed  that  He  appeared  five  times  on  Easter 
Day,  and  at  various  times  during  a  period  of 
forty  days.  Five  hundred  of  them,  Paul  says, 
saw  Him  at  one  time,  on  a  mountain- top,  in  the 
full  light  of  day.  Within  six  weeks  of  Christas 
death,  in  the  very  city  where  He  was  crucified, 
these  men  were  publicly  telling  their  story.  In 
one  day  three  thousand  people  believed  it,  and 
joined  the  Christian  Society.  In  the  very  city 
where  the  crucifixion  took  place,  the  Church 
was  created  and  built  upon  the  truth  of  the 
resurrection. 

But  the  fifth  and  last  fact  is  the  most  striking 
of  all — i.  e.,  the  transformation  of  the  disciples. 
There  was  a  threefold  transformation,  of  be- 


‘‘HE  KOSE  AGAIN” 


101 


lief,  of  character,  and  of  social  life.  First, 
tliere  was  a  transformation  of  belief.  The 
apostles  and  disciples  were,  on  Friday,  mono¬ 
theists — worshippers  of  one  God  only;  but  on 
and  after  Easter  Day,  and  from  that  day  to 
this,  they,  and  their  successors,  have  been  wor¬ 
shippers  of  Jesus  Christ,  whose  worship,  how¬ 
ever,  has  not  displaced  but  rather  enlarged  the 
worship  of  God.  The  Cross,  which  to  them 
had  been  a  symbol  of  disgrace,  became  from 
that  moment  a  symbol  of  victory.  The  Church 
has  planted  the  Cross  in  the  highest  places  of 
the  earth.  It  is  her  symbol  of  victory.  More 
marvellous  still:  of  all  Jewish  institutions,  the 
one  to  which  they  held  most  tenaciously  was 
the  Sabbath  day — the  seventh  day  of  the  week. 

Yet  these  people  changed  their  Sabbath  from 
the  last  to  the  first  day  of  the  week.  Why  did 
they  change  it?  It  was  in  honour  of  the  man 
whom  they  declared  had  risen  from  the  dead. 
The  more  this  matter  is  considered  the  more 
amazing  it  becomes.  But  a  more  remarkable 
transformation  was  that  of  their  characters. 
What  were  they  before  the  Resurrection  ?  Men 
of  low  condition;  persons  who  were  self-seek¬ 
ing  and  often  cowardly.  But  see  them  after  the 
Resurrection.  Look  at  the  chief  of  the  party. 
Before  the  Resurrection  Simon  Peter  denied 
vdth  oaths  and  curses  that  he  knew  Christ. 


102 


^‘HE  ROSE  AGAIN’’ 


After  the  Resurrection  that  same  man  stood  up 
and  faced  both  the  aristocracy  and  the  mob, 
and  fearlessly  declared  that  Jesus  Christ  had 
risen  from  the  dead.  The  man  was  trans¬ 
formed  from  a  coward  to  a  brave.  And  all 
these  men,  who  had  formerly  been  self-seek¬ 
ing,  now  transformed,  became  witnesses  to  the 
risen  Christ  and  went  everywhere  to  preach 
Him.  Most  of  them  gave  up  their  lives  in 
martyrdom  for  their  faith. 

The  third  transformation  was  that  of  their 
social  life.  Before  the  Resurrection  the  dis¬ 
ciples  were  a  band  of  unrelated  individuals; 
but  belief  in  the  Resurrection  fused  them  into  a 
solid,  compact  body  bound  to  their  Master  in  a 
vital  fellowship.  Belief  in  the  Resurrection 
created  the  Church,  and  made  of  simple  units 
the  greatest  society  that  the  world  has  ever 
known.  Put  plainly,  thousands  of  people,  in¬ 
cluding  ‘‘  a  multitude  of  priests,”  who  knew 
for  a  fact  that  Jesus  had  died  by  crucifixion, 
deliberately  joined  a  Society  whose  main  busi¬ 
ness  was  to  affirm  that  this  same  Jesus  had 
risen  from  the  dead  and  was  the  Lord  of  Life. 
Is  it  rational  to  believe  that  a  few  apostles  who 
were  the  victims  of  hallucination  could  have 
persuaded  these  people  to  accept  this  truth  if 
it  was  not  the  truth  ?  The  Church  is  not  built 
upon  a  foundation  of  hysteria.  The  apostolic 


ROSE  AGAIN’’ 


103 


preaching  was  utterly  devoid  of  anything  like 
fanaticism.  There  is  no  raving,  no  heated  ap¬ 
peal,  nothing  vague  or  dreamy;  in  short  there 
is  an  entire  absence  of  the  peculiarities  which 
are  everywhere  associated  with  the  vapourings 
of  visionaries.  On  the  contrary  their  preaching 
was  reasoned  and  based  upon  the  Scriptures. 
The  resurrection  was  shown  to  be  in  the  true 
order  of  Divine  events.  The  Church,  which  is 
a  substantial  edifice,  demands  an  adequate 
foundation  for  its  support.  It  could  not  have 
survived  during  the  ages  and  been  what  it  is, 
had  it  been  founded  upon  a  lie. 

These  five  plain  facts  are  surely  indisputable, 
and  they  have  to  be  accounted  for,  adequately. 
The  only  cause  that  has  ever  been  suggested 
wholly  adequate  to  these  effects  is  the  apostolic 
belief  in  the  Resurrection.  Rightly  or  wrongly, 
the  disciples  believed  that  Christ  rose,  and  that 
belief  created  these  gigantic  effects.  So  we 
now  arrive  at  the  crucial  question:  is  the  story 
they  believed  a  true  story  f 

There  are  only  three  possible  hypotheses. 
When  the  disciples  declared  that  Christ  rose 
from  the  dead,  they  either  lied,  or  they  were 
mistaken,  or  they  spoke  the  simple  truth.  Let 
us  deal  with  the  first  of  these — did  the  disciples 
lie  when  they  bore  witness  to  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day? 


104 


ROSE  AGAIN’’ 


One  or  two  sceptics  have  said  so  in  former 
times,  but  who,  to-day,  would  suggest  that  the 
disciples  lied?  What  had  they  to  gain  by 
lying?  Persons,  as  a  rule,  do  not  swear 
falsely  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  it;  when  they 
speak  falsely  it  is  for  the  sake  of  some  advan¬ 
tage  or  gain.  But  what  could  be  the  gain  to 
the  disciples  if  they  lied  ?  They  either  believed 
in  Jesus  Christ  or  they  did  not  If  they  did 
not  believe  in  Him,  why  should  they  resurrect 
Him?  If  they  did  believe  in  Him  they  could 
not  have  lied  about  Him — such  a  Christ  as  they 
preached.  The  thing  is  impossible!  There 
was  no  gain  from  men  save  persecution,  hatred, 
ostracism,  and  martyrdom.  What  had  they  to 
gain  from  God?  We  can  read  in  the  New 
Testament  what  these  same  apostles  thought 
of  lying.  Liars  they  said  are  to  be  cast  out 
from  God’s  presence.  There  could  be  no  gain 
then  from  God,  since  they  believed  falsehood 
banished  them  from  God’s  presence. 

But  supposing  they  did  lie,  what  are  the  im¬ 
plications?  They  would  have  had  to  remove 
the  stone  from  the  sepulchre,  overcome  the 
Roman  guard,  take  the  body  away,  carefully 
hide  it  and  so  marvellously  preserve  the  secret 
of  its  resting-place  that  to  this  day  no  person 
has  ever  discovered  it.  And  remember,  there 
were  five  hundred  people  in  this  plot,  if  plot  it 


ROSE  AGAIN  'l05 

was.  ‘‘  He  was  seen  of  five  hundred  brethren 
at  once.^’  Is  it  possible  for  five  hundred  pre¬ 
varicators  to  bolster  up  a  falsehood  of  this 
order  for  fifty  or  sixty  years  and  not  betray 
themselves  to  the  public?  We  are  bound  to 
believe  in  the  honesty  of  the  witnesses  if  we 
believe  in  anything  at  all.  We  can  then  safely 
put  aside  this  first  hypothesis;  it  will  not  bear 
looking  into. 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  second  hypothesis? 
Were  these  people  mistaken?  It  is  quite  pos¬ 
sible  for  a  person  to  be  mistaken  without  de¬ 
liberately  lying.  Sincerity  is  not  everything. 
A  man  may  be  sincerely  mistaken.  Were  these 
people  mistaken  ?  If  so,  they  could  be  mistaken 
in  one  of  two  ways  only.  They  were  either 
imposed  upon  by  themselves,  or  they  were 
imposed  upon  by  others.  Supposing  somebody 
outside  the  apostolic  band  imposed  upon  them, 
who  could  that  somebody  be  ?  Did  Jesus  Him¬ 
self  impose  upon  them?  That  has  been  seri¬ 
ously  suggested. 

It  was  the  theory  of  Dr.  Paulus  in  the  early 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  declared 
that  Jesus  did  not  die  upon  the  Cross;  He  only 
fainted.  They  placed  Him  in  the  tomb  while 
He  was  still  living.  After  a  time  He  revived ; 
and  then  He  crept  out  of  the  tomb  and  de¬ 
parted  while  the  soldiers  slept.  Later,  the 


106 


ROSE  AGAIN” 


apostles  saw  Him,  and,  believing  He  had  come 
to  life  again,  they  saluted  Him  as  having  risen 
from  the  dead,  and  so  was  born  the  legend  of 
the  Resurrection.  Think  what  that  amazing 
theory  involves.  It  means  that  a  man  half¬ 
dead,  faint  with  loss  of  blood,  without  food  for 
forty-eight  hours.  His  side  lanced  with  a 
Roman  soldier’s  spear.  His  feet  and  His  hands 
pierced  by  nails,  had  yet  strength  enough  to 
roll  away  the  stone  from  the  entrance  to  the 
sepulchre,  to  pass  the  guards  without  waking 
them,  to  walk  eight  miles  to  Emmaus  on  feet 
that  were  broken  and  sore;  then  to  return  to 
Jerusalem  more  quickly  than  two  able-bodied 
men  were  able  to  do!  Can  absurdity  go  to 
greater  lengths  ? 

The  best  answer  to  this  strange  theory  was 
given  by  Dr.  Strauss,  himself  a  thorough  scep¬ 
tic:  “Is  it  possible,”  he  asks,  “that  a  man, 
half-dead,  who  had  dragged  himself  in  languor 
and  exhaustion  out  of  his  grave,  whose  wounds 
required  careful  and  prolonged  attention, 
should  have  left  upon  the  minds  of  his  disciples 
the  impression  of  the  conqueror  of  death,  and 
the  grave,  and  that  he  was  the  Prince  of  Life? 
Such  a  return  to  life  would  only  have  served 
to  weaken  the  impression  which  Jesus  had  pre¬ 
viously  made  upon  them,  and  could  never  have 
changed  their  grief  into  enthusiasm,  and  ex- 


‘‘HE  ROSE  AGAIN 


107 


alted  their  admiration  into  adoration.”  More 
than  that,  it  is  impossible  that  Jesus  could  have 
imposed  upon  them.  Had  He  done  so  then 
we  could  not  believe  in  Him  at  all.  We  could 
not  even  retain  Him  as  a  moral  teacher. 

If  what  Dr.  Paulus  suggested  took  place, 
Jesus  must  have  known  that  His  disciples  were 
proclaiming  everywhere  the  story  of  His  resur¬ 
rection;  yet  He  never  made  the  least  effort  to 
silence  them.  How  could  we  believe  in  Him 
after  that?  If  Jesus  was  the  One  who  de¬ 
ceived  them,  the  Christ  must  go;  we  cannot 
retain  Him  in  any  capacity  whatever.  But  the 
Jews,  did  they  deceive  the  apostles?  Did  they 
take  away  His  dead  body?  Why,  then,  were 
they  silent  when  the  disciples  began  to  preach 
the  resurrection,  and  draw  people  away  from 
the  Jewish  faith,  to  empty  the  synagogues,  and 
to  establish  a  Church?  How  could  the  Jews, 
supposing  them  to  have  possessed  the  dead 
body,  have  remained  silent?  One  exhibition 
of  the  dead  body  of  Jesus  in  Jerusalem  would 
have  ruined  the  Christian  Church.  But  that 
dead  body  of  Jesus  was  never  produced. 
This  question  of  our  Lord^s  dead  body  is  of 
great  importance.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  it 
really  does  not  matter  what  became  of  it.  But 
it  matters — a  great  deal.  Christianity  is  cer¬ 
tainly  not  built  upon  an  empty  tomb,  but 


108 


EOSE  AGAIN 


that  empty  tomb  must  be  accounted  for,  and 
scepticism  always  avoids  the  question. 
Christ,  then,  did  not  impose  upon  the  disciples 
and  the  Jews  did  not  impose  on  them:  then  we 
ask  did  they  impose  upon  themselves?  Were 
they  the  victims  of  hallucination?  It  was 
Ernest  Renan  who  first  gave  birth  to  this 
theory  which  runs  like  this:  Mary  Magdalene, 
who  owed  her  moral  life  to  Jesus  Christ,  was 
broken-hearted  when  her  friend  died.  With 
His  passing  she  lost  everything.  She  haunted 
His  grave.  On  Easter  Day,  in  the  gray  of  the 
dawn,  the  gardener  passed  by;  and  she  with 
eyes  swollen  by  weeping  looked  up,  and,  per¬ 
ceiving  the  gardener,  imagined  that  he  was 
Jesus  come  to  life  again.  She  went  at  once  to 
the  disciples,  and  declared  that  Christ  was 
risen.  They  all  believed  the  story  of  this  half 
demented  visionary,  and  so  the  legend  of  the 
Resurrection  came  into  existence.  This,  stripped 
of  its  embellishments,  is  the  theory  of  the 
brilliant  Ernest  Renan.  But,  as  Dr.  Fair- 
bairn  said:  “If  that  be  true,  the  apostles  are 
reduced  to  a  society  of  fools.’’ 

But  is  it  true?  Was  Mary  Magdalene  the 
neurotic  Renan  would  have  us  believe?  Her 
portrait  drawn  in  the  Gospels  gives  us  no  such 
impression.  On  Easter  morn  she  was  a 
woman  in  despair,  and  certainly  in  no  mood  for 


ROSE  AGAIN 


109 


ecstatic  visions.  When  she  saw  Jesus  she  mis¬ 
took  Him  for  the  gardener.  She  does  not 
take  the  first  person  she  encounters  for  her 
Lord;  she  mistakes  her  Lord  for  somebody 
else,  and  it  is  not  until  He  speaks  to  her,  call¬ 
ing  her  by  name,  “  Mary !  ”  that  she  recognizes 
Him.  And  the  apostles,  do  they  give  the  im¬ 
pression  of  being  neurotics,  or  men  liable  to 
hallucinations?  On  the  contrary  they  were 
open-air  men;  and  open-air  people,  as  a  rule, 
are  not  subject  to  hallucinations.  A  parallel 
has  sometimes  been  drawn  between  the  appear¬ 
ances  of  the  Risen  Christ  and  the  apparition 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  to  the  peasant  girl 
Bernadette  Soubirous  at  Lourdes.  But  no¬ 
body  who  has  made  a  careful  study  of  Ber¬ 
nadette  and  her  surroundings  could  hold  this 
view.  The  portrait  of  Bernadette  is  in  circula¬ 
tion  and  it  completely  reveals  the  secret  of 
Lourdes.  There  is  no  mystery  about  the  ap¬ 
paritions  to  a  psychologist  who  is  well  aware 
of  the  revelation  which  “  mystic  dreamy  eyes,’' 
such  as  hers,  convey.  Whoever  examines  the 
eyes  of  that  simple  girl  and  follows  the  whole 
story  of  her  life — so  sad,  so  unhealthy — can 
explain  Lourdes.  The  secret  of  the  appari¬ 
tions  lay  in  the  neurotic  mind  and  unhealthy 
flesh  of  the  peasant  girl.  Bernadette  saw  the 
Virgin  Mary,  but  the  Virgin  never  appeared  to 


110 


‘‘HE  KOSE  AGAIN 


her.  The  vision  was  purely  subjective.  No-- 
body  else  sazv  the  Virgin,  Upon  the  subjective 
vision  of  that  one  girl  has  been  built  the  shrine 
of  Lourdes.  Now  contrast  all  this  with  the 
plain,  straightforward  story  of  the  Gospels. 
Bernadette,  by  her  temperament,  explains 
Lourdes.  The  apostles  of  Christ  do  not  ex¬ 
plain  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  Again,  hal¬ 
lucinations  are  nearly  always  in  the  direction 
of  favourite  ideas.  The  Virgin  beheld  by 
Bernadette  was  a  lady  dressed  in  blue  and 
white  who  uttered  the  words  “  I  am  the  Im¬ 
maculate  Conception.”  But  across  the  moun¬ 
tains,  at  La  Salette,  there  had  been  another, 
and  an  earlier,  apparition  of  the  Virgin 
to  some  children.  Bernadette  was  familiar 
with  the  story  of  La  Salette,  and  with  the  pic¬ 
ture  of  the  Virgin  in  blue  and  white  that  had 
been  circulated.  She  retained  it  in  her  little 
mind,  and  at  an  appropriate  moment  it  took  a 
subjective  form  to  her.  The  virgin  of  the 
grotto  of  Lourdes  was  the  phantom  of  the 
virgin  at  La  Salette.  Bernadette’s  hallucina¬ 
tion  was  in  the  direction  of  a  favourite  idea. 
But  in  the  case  of  the  apostles,  there  was  no 
subjective  material  out  of  which  a  Risen  Christ 
could  be  fabricated.  It  was  something  quite 
new  and  unexpected.  And  so  far  from  being 
limited  to  one  person,  we  must  remember  that 


ROSE  AGAIN’’ 


111 


five  hundred  people  saw  tlie  Risen  Christ  at 
one  time.  As  one  great  brain  specialist  said: 

Collective  hallucinations  to  that  extent  are 
impossible.” 

One  man  may  be  self-deceived,  but  when 
five  hundred  normal  people  declare  they  saw 
Christ,  and  that  He  had  spoken  with  them,  is 
it  permissible  to  say  they  were  victims  of  a 
common  hallucination?  Further,  the  evidence 
is  overwhelming  that  the  visions  were  frequent 
and  were  witnessed  by  various  people  at  differ¬ 
ent  times  and  in  different  places.  They  were 
not  given  to  nervous  people  sitting  in  darkened 
apartments  working  up  a  materialization,  but 
to  normal  people  in  normal  conditions.  It  was 
not  once  they  saw  Him,  but  continuously  dur¬ 
ing  forty  days.  And  the  appearances  were  not 
casual  appearances,  but,  as  Godet  says,  “  they 
were  moral  and  graded.”  When  Jesus  first 
appeared  to  them  He  consoled  their  broken 
hearts,  afterward  He  established  their  faith; 
finally  He  instructed  them  concerning  their 
apostolate.  They  knew  Him  to  be  the  same 
Christ  as  aforetime.  Finally  it  has  to  be  said 
that  hallucinations  have  never  yet,  in  this  world, 
produced  a  strong  character.  Do  we  know 
any  person  suffering  from  hallucinations  who 
became  stronger  in  mind  and  character  as  the 
result?  The  apostles  and  disciples  however 


112 


ROSE  AGAIN 


became  new  men,  strong  and  courageous  and 
great  in  character  as  the  result  of  their  belief 
in  the  Resurrection.  That  is,  the  effect 
anszvered  completely  to  the  alleged  cause. 
Think  of  the  logic  of  Paul,  the  courage  of 
Peter,  the  administrative  ability  of  James — 
are  these  the  results  of  hallucination?  The 
thing  is  impossible. 

Every  Rationalistic  theory,  then,  which  seeks 
to  account  for  the  Resurrection,  crumbles  into 
dust.  There  is  only  one  way  of  accounting  for 
it — it  is  true.  Jesus  really  rose  again  from 
the  dead  on  the  third  day.  If  historical  science 
be  real,  then  no  fact  of  history  is  so  well  at¬ 
tested  as  the  fact  of  Christ’s  resurrection.  And 
yet  it  is  true  to  say  that  the  final  proof  of  the 
resurrection  must  ever  be  personal.  It  is  only 
when  we  come  under  the  empire  of  Christ  and 
commune  with  Him  ,  that  we  personally  know 
He  is  alive.  The  Christian  faith,  intellectually, 
is  sublime.  It  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
assaults  of  men.  But  it  is  a  dead  faith  to  any 
man  who  cannot  complete  the  apostolic  wit¬ 
ness  by  adding,  He  was  seen  of  me  cdso/^ 


VIII 


THE  SPIRITUAL  IMPLICATIONS  OF 
CHRISrS  RESURRECTION 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  mere  fact. 

All  facts  are  in  relation  to  other 
things.  They  have  their  antecedents 
and  their  consequences.  They  mean  some¬ 
thing.  The  more  wonderful  the  fact,  the 
greater  will  be  its  meaning. — The  rising  of 
Jesus  from  the  dead  is  a  fact  of  history,  but 
it  is  a  great  deal  more  than  that.  Christianity 
declares  that  it  has  eternal  implications.  It  is 
a  gospel.  It  proclaims  the  victory  of  life. 
Jesus  is  the  Lord  of  life.  He  “  could  not  be 
holden  of  death.’’  The  victory  He  won  is  ours 
also — in  Him.  Man  now  knows  that  he  is  not 
under  the  tyranny  of  matter:  he  has  the  liberty 
of  the  spirit.  Hence  we  offer  to  Christ  our 
worship  and  we  place  in  Him  our  hope.  He 
has  opened  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  be¬ 
lievers.  At  His  girdle  swing  the  keys  of 
destinv.  He  rose  as  the  Son  of  God  and  as 
the  Son  of  Man — both. 

And  He  continues  his  redeeming  work.  He 

“3 


114  CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION 


remains  forever  the  One  Priest  whose  sacrifice 
and  intercession  avail  for  our  salvation.  He 
is  the  eternal  prophet  who  teaches  with  the 
final  authority.  He  is  the  only  King  of  man’s 
life,  to  direct  and  to  lead  it  into  the  true  way 
of  progress.  And  He  is  alive  forevermore. 

The  Resurrection  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
carries  a  triple  meaning.  It  is  at  once  a  vin¬ 
dication,  a  justification  and  a  revelation.  First 
of  all,  it  was  a  vindication  of  His  claims. 
Jesus  claimed  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  He 
claimed  the  right  to  forgive  sins.  He  claimed 
a  unique  relationship  to  God.  He  claimed 
Lordship  over  death,  since  He  said  distinctly 
that  He  had  the  ‘‘  right  ”  to  lay  down  His  life, 
and  the  “  right  ”  to  take  it  again  and  that, 
specifically,  on  the  third  day  He  would  rise 
from  the  dead.  Now,  if  He  did  not  rise  from 
the  dead  in  the  way  in  which  He  said  He  would, 
all  these  claims  fall  to  pieces.  But  He  did 
rise  again,  and  His  Resurrection  vindicates  His 
claims.  ‘‘  He  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of 
God,  with  power  by  the  resurrection  from  the 
dead.” 

Secondly,  it  was  a  justification  for  the  Chris¬ 
tian.  “Jesus  was  delivered  for  our  offences, 
and  raised  again  for  our  justification  ”  (Rom. 
4:  25).  We  do  not  look  to  a  crucifix,  but 
back  upon  a  cross.  The  crucifix  is  a  cross  with 


CHRISTAS  RESURRECTION  115 


a  dead  man  upon  it.  We  now  behold  only  an 
empty  cross;  the  Christ  who  was  nailed  to  it 
now  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God,”  living  to 
make  intercession  for  us.  His  resurrection  is 
our  justification:  it  guarantees  the  ultimate 
perfection  of  that  humanity  which  follows  the 
way  of  Jesus  and  attaches  itself  to  Him.  And 
it  gives  the  justification  in  advance.  The 
guarantee  comes  not  at  the  end  but  at  the  be¬ 
ginning  where  we  most  need  it. 

Thirdly,  the  Resurrection  is  a  revelation  of 
the  future  life;  the  life  that  we  shall  one  day 
live  beyond  the  veil.  We  are  all  compelled  to 
ask  questions  about  that  future  life.  Such 
questions  are  not  speculative,  but  practical.  It 
makes  all  the  difference  to  us  to  know  whether 
this  present  life  is  a  term  complete  in  itself,  or 
whether  it  is  a  passage  to  a  larger  life.  If  it 
is  a  term  ending  in  itself,  then  we  are  justified 
in  saying:  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to¬ 
morrow  we  die;  ”  but  if  it  is  a  passage  leading 
to  a  larger  life,  then  the  man  who  neglects  to 
prepare  for  that  life  is  guilty  of  supreme  folly. 

Now  we  can  go  far  toward  proving,  by 
reason,  the  existence  of  that  other  life,  but 
what  we  need  is  a  demonstration,  and  this  is 
what  Christianity  professes  to  offer  us.  The 
Resurrection  of  Christ  claims  to  rest  on  dem¬ 
onstrative  evidence.  The  evangel  declares  that 


116 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION 


One  has  risen  from  the  dead,  and  that  His 
Resurrection  is  the  type  of  ours.  Speaking 
generally,  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  as¬ 
sures  us  that  the  triumph  rests,  not  with  death 
but  with  life.  That  is  its  great  general  mes¬ 
sage.  Its  specific  message  is  a  revelation  of  the 
kind  of  life  the  Christian  will  yet  live.  It 
professes  to  be  a  revelation  of  a  higher  order 
than  any  known  to  us  upon  this  planet. 
Christ’s  rising  was  not  a  revival  of  the  old  mat¬ 
ter,  but  a  transformation  of  it.  The  Resurrec¬ 
tion  body  belonged  to  a  new  order.  Paul 
speaks  of  it  as  the  “  first  fruits  of  them  that 
are  asleep  ”  (1  Cor.  15:  20).  It  is  an  illustra¬ 
tion  taken  from  the  harvest  field.  That  which 
is  first  ripe  becomes  the  symbol  of  the  rest  of 
the  crop.  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Divine 
Master  as  He  is,  is  also  the  representative  man, 
and  the  “  representative  Christian.”  His  Res¬ 
urrection  represents  two  things:  It  is  at  once 
the  pledge  and  the  pattern  of  our  own  resur¬ 
rection. 

There  is  here  undoubtedly  a  mystery  that 
we  cannot  solve  at  present,  but  it  is  only  a 
mystery  of  explanation.  We  see  in  the  risen 
body  of  Christ  a  working  of  God  beyond  our 
knowledge:  it  is  not  on  that  account  contrary 
to  “  nature  ”  or  incredible  for  the  mind.  The 
**  modern  man  ”  of  all  men  should  find  no  dif- 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION  117 

ficulty  in  accepting  the  Gospel  story  as  true. 
The  old  ideas  of  matter,  which  were  regarded 
by  our  fathers  as  finally  fixed,  are  now  suffer¬ 
ing  the  process  of  disintegration.  It  is,  to¬ 
day,  generally  admitted  that  matter  has  a 
spiritual  basis  and  that  its  transformations  are 
unlimited.  The  transformation  of  our  Lord’s 
body  by  a  special  forthputting  of  divine  power, 
cannot  therefore  any  longer  be  set  aside  as  an 
‘‘  incredible  legend.”  It  is  believable,  even  in 
the  name  of  science.  We  need  not  then 
humbly  apologize  for  the  ancient  Christian 
faith.  The  Resurrection,  or  transformation  of 
our  Lord’s  body,  is  not  an  incubus  to  faith:  it 
is  rather  essential  to  a  full  and  rich  faith.  But 
if  there  was  no  Resurrection  of  Christ,  then 
there  is  neither  ‘‘  first  fruits  ”  nor  revelation 
for  us.  In  this  larger  light  we  may  see  the 
impossibility  of  denying  the  fact  of  the  Resur¬ 
rection  while  maintaining  its  ethic. 

Starting  with  Paul’s  illustration  of  the  “  first 
fruits,”  let  us  explore  the  idea  and  try  and 
gather  what  the  ‘‘  harvest  ”  for  a  redeemed 
humanity  will  be.  First  of  all  let  us  collect 
the  facts  as  they  are  presented  to  us  in  the 
Gospels.  And  the  first  fact  is  this:  that  the 
body  of  Jesus  when  raised  from  the  dead  was 
the  same  as  before,  and  yet  not  the  same.  The 
wounds  in  it  were  visible.  Jesus  appeared  to 


118 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION 


His  disciples,  saying,  ‘‘  Behold  my  hands,  my 
feet  and  my  side,”  and  further,  “  Handle  me 
and  see;  it  is  I  myself.”  The  body  evidently 
was  the  same  as  before  the  Resurrection.  It 
is  equally  evident  that  it  was  not  the  same. 
There  was  not  merely  a  resuscitation  of  the 
flesh;  a  change  had  taken  place,  a  very  great 
change.  The  new  body  was  free  from  the 
former  material  conditions ;  it  was  endued  with 
new  powers.  What  were  they? 

Our  Lord  suddenly  appeared,  and  as  sud¬ 
denly  disappeared.  While  the  disciples  were 
together  in  the  upper  room,  suddenly  Jesus 
was  present  with  them.  How  He  came  to  be 
there  they  did  not  know.  As  suddenly  He 
vanished  out  of  their  sight.  He  could  travel 
very  quickly  with  this  body.  He  was  at  Em- 
maus  talking  to  two  disciples;  suddenly  He 
vanished  out  of  their  sight.  That  evening  He 
was  in  Jerusalem  eight  miles  away,  appearing 
to  a  group  of  people  there.  The  doors  were 
closed,  yet  this  body  of  His  passed  clean 
through  them.  There  is  then  evidently  some 
connection  between  the  body  that  died  and  the 
body  that  rose — a  connection,  observe,  yet  not 
a  sameness. 

The  second  great  fact  in  the  Gospels  is  this: 
the  resurrection  body  of  our  Lord  was  only 
seen  by  persons  sympathetic  with  Him.  No 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION 


119 


person  outside  the  group  of  five  hundred  men 
and  wom^n  who  were  His  disciples  beheld 
Him.  Scepticism  remarks  upon  this  and 
says,  “If  the  story  of  the  Resurrection  is  true, 
why  did  not  Jesus  enter  into  the  midst  of 
Jerusalem  and  show  Himself  to  the  people? 
They  would  then  have  been  convinced.” 
Would  they?  To  say  this  is  to  show  little 
knowledge  of  history  or  of  the  working  of  the 
human  mind.  The  fact  is  that  the  body  of 
Jesus  after  the  Resurrection  was  seen  only  by 
the  sympathetic,  those  who  were  in  touch  with 
Him.  The  Pharisees  and  Scribes  saw  noth¬ 
ing  ;  the  men  who  murdered  Him  saw  nothing ; 
He  appeared  to  His  apostles,  to  the  five  hun¬ 
dred  of  whom  Paul  speaks,  and  others. 

The  third  fact  is  that  the  one  word  used  in 
the  Gospels  to  account  for  these  appearances  of 
Christ  is  the  word  “  manifested.”  “  It  came 
to  pass  after  these  things  that  Jesus  mani¬ 
fested  himself.”  What  is  the  implication  be¬ 
hind  that  word?  It  is  that  the  power  of  rev¬ 
elation  rested  not  so  much  with  those  who 
saw,  as  with  Him  who  showed  Himself.  The 
idea  is  that  of  parting  a  veil.  The  one  on  that 
side  of  the  veil  beholds  people  on  this  side  who 
cannot  see  Him,  until  He  parts  the  veil,  and 
allows  them  to  see  Him.  If  we  put  together 
these  three  facts — i.  e.,  first,  that  Christ’s  body 


120 


CHRISTAS  RESURRECTION 


was  the  same,  yet  not  the  same,  being  endued 
with  new  powers ;  second,  that  it  was  seen  only 
by  the  sympathetic ;  and  third,  that  the  appear¬ 
ances  are  explained  by  the  word  manifest  ” 
— we  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  body  of 
Jesus  which  was  buried  underwent  a  rapid 
spiritual  transformation.  It  did  not  decay:  it 
was  transformed.  When  it  rose  it  really  be¬ 
longed  to  the  spiritual  world,  but  for  forty 
days  it  moved  upon  the  border  of  two  worlds 
manifesting  itself  at  various  times  until  finally 
it  ceased  to  be  seen  of  human  eyes. 

Such  are  the  facts  as  set  forth  in  the  Gospels. 
Now  is  all  this  fantasy  or  can  we  discover  any 
spiritual  or  scientific  law  that  accounts  for  it 
and  makes  it  credible?  We  may  find  a  little 
light  by  means  of  an  illustration  or  two.  For 
example:  A  certain  number  of  vibrations  are 
necessary  to  produce  a  musical  sound.  Below 
a  certain  number  and  above  a  certain  number 
of  these  vibrations  no  music  will  reach  us.  If 
the  vibrations  are  too  slow  or  if  they  are  too 
rapid  sound  fails  to  reach  our  ears.  Or  again 
let  us  take  an  illustration  from  colour:  What 
we  call  colour  is,  of  course,  a  sense  impression; 
it  is  a  sensation  produced  by  the  vibrations  of 
ether-waves.  So  many  million  vibrations  per 
second  produce  the  sensation  we  call  violet  or 
blue  or  red.  Below  or  beyond  a  certain  num- 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION 


121 


ber  of  vibrations  there  can  be  no  sensation  of 
colour  at  all.  The  musical  chord  vibrating  too 
quickly  or  too  slowly  gives  no  impression  of 
music;  that  is,  our  ears  can  detect  no  musical 
sound.  The  ether  waves  vibrating  below  or 
above  a  certain  rapidity  give  no  sensation  of 
colour:  our  eye  beholds  nothing.  And  may 
we  not  say  speaking  in  these  terms  that  the 
cessation  of  our  Lord’s  manifestation  of  Him¬ 
self  to  His  disciples  was  due,  in  part,  to  their 
inability  to  respond  to  further  and  higher  mani¬ 
festations.  The  limit  for  them  had  been 
reached. 

Let  us  not  imagine  that  our  eyes  represent 
the  limit  of  vision.  They  do  not  at  all.  We 
can  conceive  of  a  higher  order  of  life  in  which 
we,  transformed,  may  see  and  hear  what  is 
impossible  for  us  to  see  and  hear  now,  bounded 
as  we  are  by  the  sense  life  of  our  mortality. 
There  was  a  limit,  evidently,  to  the  spiritual 
manifestation  of  our  Lord,  for  the  appearance 
ceased  after  forty  days.  On  the  Mount  of 
Ascension  Jesus  withdrew  finally  into  the  spirit 
world,  from  where  He  has  not  again  mani¬ 
fested  Himself,  save  once,  and  that  in  a  special 
manner  to  St.  Paul,  on  the  road  to  Damascus. 

One  other  thing  we  must  understand  in  order 
to  appreciate  fully  the  appearances  of  our 
Lord’s  resurrection  body.  We  cannot  discon- 


122  CHEIST’S  EESUERECTION 


nect  the  Resurrection  from  the  Transfigura¬ 
tion.  We  know  what  happened  there,  An 
immense  change  took  place  in  the  body  of 
Jesus.  Professor  Godet  assumed  that  this  was 
the  moment  when  Jesus  might  have  returned 
to  His  heavenly  home.  ‘‘Ascension  was  as 
much  the  natural  way  for  Jesus  as  death  is  to 
us.’’  The  Transfiguration  showed  that  His 
sacred  flesh  was  so  etherealized  even  then  that 
it  already  belonged  to  the  higher  order  of  life, 
but  that  “  Jesus  turned  back  to  mortality,  and 
went  on  to  Calvary,  for  love  of  us  and  for  our 
redemption.”  The  Transfiguration  revealed  in 
our  Lord’s  body  something  superior  to  the 
gross  matter  in  which  we  are  imprisoned.  The 
modern  man  is  inclined  to  make  sport  of  this 
story.  But  suppose  that  the  modern  man  is 
not  normal,  and  that  sin  has  spoiled  him.^  That 
would  account  for  a  great  deal.  But  Jesus  was 
the  perfect  man,  entirely  normal,  without  de¬ 
fect,  without  fault,  without  sin.  When  we  look 
at  His  body  so  transfigured,  we  see  what  man 
might  have  been  had  sin  not  had  dominion  over 
him.  Suppose  it  should  be  true  that  the  trans¬ 
figured  body  of  Jesus  is  the  “  type  ”  of  the 
normal  man  and  that  our  bodies  are  what  they 
are,  subject  to  disease  and  decay  because  some- 

*  See  Dr.  Newman  Smyth’s  remarkable  discourse  on 
“  The  lyimits  of  Spiritual  Manifestation.” 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION  123 


thing  has  gone  wrong  with  us!  It  is  worth 
thinking  over. 

We  go  a  stage  further  and  find  a  further 
implication  in  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus. 
What  relation  is  there  between  our  spiritual 
personality  and  our  mortal  body?  I  assume 
belief  in  the  truth  that  we  are  here  below 
spiritual  personalities,  wedded  to  material 
bodies.  Is  there  a  permanent  relation  between 
the  two?  On  this  physical  plane  a  material 
vehicle  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  our  spiritual  personality;  but  is  this  de¬ 
pendence  of  the  spirit  upon  a  body  temporary 
or  permanent  ?  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  in  an  article 
in  the  Hibbert  Journal,  says:  We  must  believe 
that  the  connection  between  spirit  and  body  is 
more  than  temporary.  In  essence  it  is  per¬ 
manent.”  It  is  a  little  startling  to  find  that 
Paul  said  practically  the  same  thing  long  ago. 

We  wait  for  a  Saviour,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  shall  fashion  anew  the  body  of  our 
humiliation  that  it  may  be  conformed  to  the 
body  of  his  glory  ”  (Phil.  3:  21). 

And  again:  “We  know  that  if  the  earthly 
house  of  our  tent  be  dissolved,  we  have  a  build¬ 
ing  from  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal,  in  the  heavens;  for  in  this  we  groan 
.  .  .  not  that  we  would  be  unclothed,  but 

that  we  would  be  clothed  upon,  that  what  is 


124  CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION 


mortal  may  he  swallowed  up  of  life''  (2  Cor. 
5:  1) — absorbed  by  something  greater.  This 
mortality  is  not  to  cease  to  exist,  but  it  is  to  be 
“  swallowed  up  of  life.” 

And  again:  ‘‘  So  also  is  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead.  It  is  sown  in  corruption,  it  is  raised 
in  incorruption;  it  is  sown  in  dishonour,  it  is 
raised  in  glory.  It  is  sown  in  weakness,  it  is 
raised  in  power ;  it  is  sown  a  natural  body,  it  is 
raised  a  spiritual  body.  There  is  a  natural 
body  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body”  (1  Cor. 
15:42).  The  Apostle  teaches  then  that  the 
connection  between  spirit  and  body  is  perma¬ 
nent  in  principle.  This  language  is  extremely 
lucid ;  it  states  the  truth  concerning  our  resur¬ 
rection  in  a  form  to  which  the  modern  man  can 
take  no  exception. 

The  quality  of  our  Lord’s  Resurrection  body, 
together  with  the  clear  statements  of  St.  Paul 
concerning  the  spiritual  body,”  offer  no  little 
light  upon  a  difficult  subject. 

First,  they  remove  the  common  misconcep¬ 
tion  which  prevails  concerning  the  “  resurrec¬ 
tion  of  the  body,”  a  conception  which  could 
never  have  obtained  had  people  carefully  read 
their  Bibles.  New  Testament  language  puts 
out  of  court  that  grotesque  conception  which 
some  Christians  have  held,  and  which  sceptics 
everlastingly  combat,  of  the  resurrection  of  the 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION 


125 


flesh.  By  the  resurrection  of  the  body  we  do 
not  mean  the  resurrection  of  the  material 
particles  of  our  flesh.  We  mean,  not  continu¬ 
ation,  but  transfiguration  and  transformation 
after  the  pattern  of  the  Divine  first-fruits. 
The  resurrection  of  the  material  flesh  is  un¬ 
thinkable.  Chemistry  decides  against  it  for 
one  thing.  Everybody  knows  what  happens 
when  a  corpse  is  put  under  the  ground,  or  con¬ 
sumed  by  fire.  The  particles  are  disintegrated 
and  disappear ;  they  pass  into  other  forms,  but 
as  physical  bodies  they  disappear  forever. 
Those  mortal  bodies  will  never  be  raised  again. 
A  man  of  seventy  has  had  seventy  different 
bodies  in  the  course  of  his  life.  The  material 
particles  change  every  year.  If  the  mortal 
flesh  be  raised,  which  body  of  the  seventy  will 
it  be — the  first  or  the  last?  The  case  will  not 
bear  stating.  A  missionary,  for  instance,  who 
has  been  eaten  by  cannibals,  or  martyrs  like 
Ridley  and  Latimer,  who  were  burned  to  death, 
or  a  man  in  Australia  who  has  left  an  ampu¬ 
tated  limb  in  England — how  will  these  mortal 
bodies  be  raised?  Chemistry  and  common 
sense  are  against  belief  in  the  raising  of  the 
material  flesh.  It  is  not  the  resurrection  of 
the  literal  flesh  that  the  Bible  teaches. 

Paul  teaches  something  quite  different  from 
that.  ''  Thou  foolish  one,  what  thou  sowest 


126 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION 


does  not  come  to  life  except  it  die.  And  what 
thou  sowest,  thou  sowest  not  the  body  that 
shall  be,  but  a  bare  grain.  God  giveth  it  a  body 
even  as  it  pleased  him,  and  to  each  seed  a  body 
of  his  own.  .  .  .  There  are  celestial 

bodies  and  terrestrial  bodies,  but  the  glory  of 
the  celestial  is  one,  and  the  glory  of  the  ter¬ 
restrial  is  another,  so  also  is  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead’’  (1  Cor.  15).  Now  what  happens 
when  a  seed  is  sown  in  the  ground  ?  We  never 
see  that  seed  again;  it  never  reappears  in  its 
old  form,  but  there  is  a  principle  of  life  within 
the  grain  that  survives  and  creates  a  new  form. 
There  is  a  connection  between  the  seed  that 
was  and  the  wheat  that  is,  and  in  like  manner 
there  is  a  connection  between  our  mortal  body 
and  the  spiritual  body  that  we  shall  yet  as¬ 
sume — a  connection  not  of  sameness  as  in  the 
case  of  the  grain  but  of  transfiguration.  What 
that  connection  is  no  man  can  tell;  we  must 
always  remember  our  ignorance.  The  point 
to  emphasize  is  that  there  is  a  spiritual  body, 
and  in  that  spiritual  body  we  shall  be  clothed 
beyond  the  veil.  We  shall  be  like  the  first- 
fruits — our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  But  it  must  al¬ 
ways  be  remembered  that  in  His  case  there  is 
the  exceptional  element.  For  special  evidential 
reasons  there  was  an  immediate  connection  es¬ 
tablished  between  His  old  and  His  new  body. 


CHRISTAS  RESURRECTION  127 


It  was  necessary  for  this  to  be  so  with  Him, 
Nothing  of  Him  saw  corruption.  With  us 
there  must  be  the  passing  of  the  particles  of 
our  mortal  flesh  in  a  natural  manner.  Christ 
is  the  first-fruits  of  the  Christian  harvest;  hut 
the  process  obviously  will  not  be  the  same  for 
us  as  for  Him.  The  end  will  be  the  same,  i.  e., 
the  possession  of  a  body  of  glory.’’  We  can 
only  state  the  general  fact  and  confess  igno¬ 
rance  as  to  the  method.  The  spiritual  body  will 
harmonize  with  the  spiritual  home  into  which 
we  go.  The  change  will  be  effected  by  the 
magician  called  Life.  “  That  what  is  mortal 
may  be  swallowed  up  of  life”  (3  Cor.  5:  4). 
Life  works  the  transformation.  It  is  life  that 
has  fashioned  our  mortal  body;  it  is  life — 
Christ’s  life — that  will  fashion  it  anew.” 

Organization  does  not  cause  life;  life  causes 
organization.  This  is  a  commonplace  of  bi¬ 
ology.  St.  Paul  tells  us  that  when  this  mortal 
organization  falls  to  pieces  the  life  of  Christ 
at  work  in  us  can  “  fashion  anew  ”  our  bodies 
so  as  to  be  conformed  to  the  body  of  Christ’s 
glory.”  Christ  is  the  type  to  which  the  Chris¬ 
tian  conforms.  These  implications  for  us  of 
the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  are  not  merely  in¬ 
formative,  they  are  inspiring.  They  serve  to 
quicken  the  whole  of  our  life;  to  raise  it  to 
a  higher  plane.  They  call  us  to  order  our 


128 


CHRIOT’S  EESURRECTION 


mortal  lives  in  the  light  of  the  higher  life  to 
which  we  shall  pass.  They  bring  repose  to 
our  hearts  with  regard  to  the  dear  ones  who 
have  left  us.  What  has  become  of  our  holy 
dead?  They  are  with  Christ  in  glory.  Our 
dead  ’’  “  in  Christ  ”  are  with  Him,  where  we 
shall  be  reunited  to  them.  They  are  in  the 
spiritual  world  where,  by  God’s  mercy,  we 
shall  also  be — with  Christ. 

The  fortune  of  the  Christian  is  bound  up 
with  Jesus  Christ.  This  orders  us  to  impose 
discipline  upon  our  mortal  bodies.  The  Bible 
places  great  emphasis  upon  the  culture  and  dis- 
cipline  of  the  body.  ‘'We  must  all  appear  be¬ 
fore  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,  that  we  may 
receive  the  things  done  in  the  body  whether 
they  be  good  or  bad.”  Why  in  the  body? 
There  is  a  spiritual  connection  between  flesh 
and  spirit.  They  interpenetrate  each  other. 
Sins  of  the  mind  leave  their  imprint  on  the 
flesh  and  sins  of  the  flesh  react  upon  the  mind. 
But  they  have  their  effect  also,  it  may  be  pre¬ 
sumed,  upon  the  spiritual  body  which  we  are 
even  now  weaving  for  our  future  wearing.  We 
are  all  amassing  spiritual  material  for  our  spir¬ 
itual  bodies.  What  kind  of  material  is  it  ?  Just 
as  men  carry  wounds  and  scars  on  their  physical 
bodies,  so  they  may  carry  scars  on  their  souls 
and  on  their  spiritual  bodies.  A  great  orator 


CHRIST’S  RESURRECTION  129 


once  asked  an  audience  of  men:  “  How  would 
you  like  to  summon  all  the  nasty  thoughts  and 
words  and  unclean  things  that  have  kept  you 
company  for  years,  and  live  with  them  for¬ 
ever?  ”  It  is  a  stunning  question.  If  we  be¬ 
lieve  in  the  Resurrection  as  it  is  set  out  in  the 
type  of  Christ’s,  then  we  are  under  obligation  to 
discipline  the  entire  nature,  including  the  body, 
so  that  it  may  be  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
With  a  mind  true  and  pure,  in  harmony  always 
with  God’s  Spirit,  when  we  pass  into  the 
spiritual  world,  our  spiritual  bodies  will  be 
glorified  after  the  pattern  of  the  risen  body  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  shall  then  be  part 
of  the  true  harvest  of  which  He  was  the  first- 
fruits. 


IX 


‘‘  HE  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN 

According  to  the  Gospels,  at  the  end 
of  the  forty  days  of  our  Lord’s  post 
Resurrection  life,  during  which  He 
manifested  Himself  at  intervals  to  His  dis¬ 
ciples,  there  occurred  an  event  which  is  known 
to  us  as  the  Ascension.  For  some  reason  or 
other  the  Ascension  has  never  gripped  the  im¬ 
agination,  the  heart,  and  the  mind  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Church  as  the  Resurrection  has.  On  the 
contrary  it  has  been  a  stumbling  block  to  many 
Christians,  while  it  remains  a  target  for  the 
ridicule  of  unbelievers.  We  are  told  that  it 
complicates  our  faith,  and  is  an  encumbrance 
to  it.  But  it  can  be  shown  that  the  Ascension 
of  our  Lord  is  at  once  historically  necessary, 
and  religiously  a  most  fitting  article  of  faith, 
and  that  for  a  fourfold  reason:  It  is  a  confir¬ 
mation  of  Christ’s  word;  a  consummation  of 
Christ’s  life ;  a  completion  of  what  may  be  de¬ 
scribed  as  the  love  circuit  of  Christ,  and  a  con¬ 
firmation  of  human  faith.  At  the  outset,  it 

is  necessary  to  say  that  the  word  “  ascension  ” 

130 


ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN^’  131 


is  no  more  than  a  term  of  accommodation.  It 
cannot  be  pressed  in  any  geographical  sense 
since  in  a  universe  like  ours,  and  particularly 
in  a  world  like  ours  which  is  always  in  move¬ 
ment  there  can  be  no  fixed  up  nor  ‘‘  down.” 
W e  must  get  beyond  the  word  to  the  truth  that 
lies  behind  it. 

Let  us  briefly  consider  the  four  points  just 
enumerated.  First,  the  Ascension  is  set  forth 
as  a  Confirmation  of  Christ’s  word.  Sound 
criticism  leaves  undisturbed  our  Lord’s  predic¬ 
tion  that  He  should  “  ascend  up  where  he  was 
before.”  Jesus  did  definitely  speak  of  His  as¬ 
cension.  On  the  morning  of  the  Resurrection, 
He  said  to  Mary  Magdalene,  “  Touch  me  not, 
for  I  am  not  yet  ascended  .  .  .  and  be¬ 

hold  I  ascend  to  my  Father  and  to  your 
Father.”  The  Ascension  was  needed  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  records  to  confirm  Christ’s  word.  Sec¬ 
ondly,  it  was  also  a  consummation  of  Christ’s 
life  and  was  necessary  to  give  finality  to  His 
Resurrection.  The  Resurrection  having  taken 
place,  the  Ascension  followed  as  a  necessity 
of  the  case,  and  it  fits  in  with  the  whole  story 
with  admirable  precision.  The  final  view  the 
Church  had  of  her  Lord  was  not  that  of  a 
defeated  man,  but  of  One  who  as  Victor  re¬ 
sumed  the  glory  which  for  thirty-three  years 
He  had  laid  aside  for  His  life  of  earthly  humil- 


132  ‘‘HE  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’^ 


iation.  Thirdly,  the  Ascension  was  the  com¬ 
pletion  of  what  we  may  call  the  Divine  love 
circuit.  At  the  Incarnation,  the  veil  parted  to 
reveal  Him;  at  the  Ascension  the  veil  again 
parted  to  receive  Him.  As  He  came  from  the 
Father,  so  He  returns  to  the  Father;  thus  com¬ 
pleting  the  redemptive  circuit.  As  the  water 
which  issues  from  the  ocean  returns  thither 
when  it  has  completed  its  mission  of  fructifying 
the  earth,  so  Jesus  Christ,  who  came  from  the 
Father,  returned  to  the  Father  when  His 
earthly  work  was  over ;  thus  He  completed  His 
love-circuit.  Finally,  the  Ascension  was  for 
the  confirmation  of  human  faith.  Had  the 
Ascension  not  taken  place,  there  would  always 
have  been  a  suspicion  that  Jesus  had  returned 
to  earth  to  die  in  the  ordinary  way.  The  final 
withdrawal  confirmed  faith  in  the  reality  of 
the  Resurrection.  His  work  on  earth  over, 
Jesus  withdrew  into  the  spiritual  sphere  to  con¬ 
tinue  His  work  from  the  higher  plane. 

The  New  Testament  account  of  the  Ascen¬ 
sion  is  very  meagre.  We  have  only  three 
historic  items  recording  it,  i.  e.,  Mark  16, 
Luke  24,  and  Acts  1.  In  Mark  16: 19,  the 
sentence  runs  thus:  “After  the  Lord  had 
spoken  unto  them,  he  was  received  up  into 
heaven,  and  sat  on  the  right  hand  of  God.” 
But  in  the  Revised  Version  the  last  chapter  of 


‘‘HE  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’’  133 


Mark  ends  with  the  eighth  verse.  Verses  nine 
to  twenty  are  entirely  omitted.  In  the  margin 
of  the  Revised  Version  there  is  a  note  to  the 
effect  that  these  verses  are  not  found  in  the 
oldest  Greek  manuscripts.  So  we  are  not  en¬ 
titled  to  use  these  verses  as  evidence.  There 
is  left  to  us  then  in  the  Gospels  only  the  ac¬ 
count  of  St.  Luke,  in  chapter  24  and  in  the 
first  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  But 
St.  Luke  is  a  writer  upon  whom  we  can  de¬ 
pend.  He  tells  us  that  he  traced  all  his 
material  to  its  origin.  It  is  he,  so  careful  in 
this  respect,  who  gives  to  us  a  full  account  of 
the  Ascension.  But  in  dealing  with  this  ques¬ 
tion  we  do  not  begin  with  the  Gospels,  for  they 
are  by  no  means  the  earliest  documents  in  the 
New  Testament. 

The  earliest  documents  are  certain  of  St. 
Paul’s  epistles  addressed  to  persons  who  had 
received  the  Gospel  in  spirit  and  in  story — ^the 
latter  orally  delivered  to  them.  In  these  early 
epistles  which  date  from  the  year  52  a.  d.  we 
find  that  the  fact  of  the  Ascension  is  every¬ 
where  taken  for  granted.  In  the  Epistle  to  the 
Philippians,  St.  Paul  gives  us  (chapter  2:9) 
the  whole  story  of  Christ’s  humiliation  and  of 
His  exaltation.  “  He  humbled  himself  even 
unto  death  .  .  .  wherefore  also  God  highly 
exalted  him  and  gave  unto  him  the  name 


134  ‘^HE  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’^ 


which  is  above  every  other  name.”  In  the  first 
Epistle  to  Timothy,  3:  16,  we  have  a  fragment 
of  liturgical  song-prayer — the  earliest  in  the 
New  Testament — and  in  this  prayer  is  em¬ 
bedded  the  great  statement:  “He  was  mani¬ 
fested  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  spirit,  seen 
of  angels,  preached  among  the  nations,  believed 
on  in  the  world,  received  up  into  glory.” 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  written 
earlier  than  the  year  70 — before  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem.  The  writer  says,  “  Having  then  a 
great  high  priest,  who  hath  passed  through  the 
heavens,  Jesus  the  Son  of  God”  (4:14). 
And  again,  “  Jesus  entered  [within  the  veil]  as 
a  forerunner”  (6:19-20).  Again,  “Christ 
entered  not  into  a  holy  place  made  with  hands 
.  .  .  but  into  heaven  itself”  (9:24).  It 

would  be  easy  to  multiply  such  instances.  It  is 
clear  then  that,  although  the  historic  account  of 
the  Ascension  in  the  Gospels  is  meagre,  we  have 
in  the  early  epistles  a  wealth  of  material  which 
is  based  upon  the  assumption  that  the  historic 
Ascension  is  true. 

With  this  agrees  the  earliest  preaching  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  In  the  very  first  sermon 
preached  by  Peter  at  Pentecost  we  have  the 
words  “  Being  therefore  by  the  right  hand  of 
God  exalted  ”  (Acts  2:  33).  Again  in  PetePs 
second  sermon,  delivered  in  Jerusalem,  the 


ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN^’  135 


same  fact  is  emphasized:  “  Him  did  God  exalt 
with  his  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Sav¬ 
iour (Acts  5:31).  Indeed  throughout  the 
earliest  apostolic  preaching  there  runs  the 
implied  historic  fact  of  the  Ascension  of 
Christ. 

When  we  carefully  examine  the  Gospel  story 
of  this  event  we  are  impressed  with  the  almost 
stern  soberness  of  the  recital.  There  are  no 
“  purple  patches  ” ;  there  is  nothing  to  feed  the 
imagination ;  nothing,  indeed,  upon  which 
Christian  art  should  have  seized  for  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  fanciful  and  childish  pictures  of  the 
Ascension.  The  difficulties  which  beset  people 
concerning  this  article  of  the  Christian  faith 
are  due,  not  so  much  to  their  reason,  as  to  their 
imagination.  Imagination  has  done  much  to 
obscure  the  real  meaning  of  the  great  event. 
Christian  art  has  often  presented  a  picture  of  a 
material  body  like  ours  rising  to  the  sky,  and 
men  imagine  the  Gospel  records  demand  this 
material  view,  hence  they  oppose  it. 

But  it  is  not  the  Bible  that  is  at  fault  so  much 
as  an  imagination  betrayed  by  Christian  art. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  Gospel  record  resem¬ 
bling  those  stories  of  levitation  of  which  we 
read  in  legend.  Mohammed  is  said  to  have 
made  a  night  journey  to  heaven  upon  a  horse. 
He  is  supposed  to  have  travelled  upon  this 


136  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’' 


animal  through  space,  and  to  have  returned  to 
earth  early  in  the  morning.  Mohammedans 
believe  that  story,  but  Christians  are  not  asked 
to  believe  anything  so  absurd  concerning  our 
Lord’s  home  going.  The  Gospel  account  of 
the  Ascension  has  no  relation  whatever  to  any¬ 
thing  absurd,  mythical,  unreal,  or  unintelligent. 
The  story  is  simple  and  sober. 

If  it  be  not  a  record  of  an  actual  happening 
then  how  did  it  arise?  How  did  the  Church 
come  to  believe  in  it?  There  was  nothing  in 
the  Jewish  religion  to  account  for  it.  There 
were  no  materials  out  of  which  they  could  have 
weaved  this  remarkable  story;  not  even  out  of 
Apocalyptic  literature.  There  was  nothing  in 
the  Old  Testament  out  of  which  they  could 
construct  this  marvellous  story  of  the  Son  of 
God  returning  to  the  Father.  There  was  noth¬ 
ing  in  pagan  legend  that  resembled  it.  Ernest 
Renan  took  the  view  that  it  was  simply  a  sub¬ 
jective  impression  on  the  minds  of  the  disciples! 
The  disciples  thought  they  saw  their  Master 
ascend.  A  passing  cloud  obscured  Him  from 
sight  and  they  never  saw  Him  again.  And 
out  of  that  story  the  Ascension  grew  I  But  if 
that  was  so,  why  did  matters  end  there  ?  Why 
was  not  there  something  further  ?  Why  should 
the  apostles  henceforth  settle  down  to  hard 
work?  If  all  was  hallucination  or  subjective. 


ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’’  137 


there  is  no  reason  for  what  followed  in  the 
Church. 

W e  need  to  clear  our  minds  as  to  what  really 
happened,  and  particularly  we  need  to  set  aside 
all  such  bathos  as  is  indicated  in  the  following 
words  which  express  the  attitude  of  many  to¬ 
ward  the  whole  subject.  The  writer,  who  has 
no  use  for  the  extraordinary  in  human  life, 
says:  In  these  days  ascending  has  no  meaning 
for  us.  Candidly,  if  the  writer  of  the  Gospel 
had  possessed  our  astronomical  knowledge, 
would  the  story  of  the  Ascension  ever  have 
been  written  at  all?  .  .  .  For  the  stupen¬ 

dous  and  absolutely  impossible  miracle  of  the 
Ascension  we  have  no  satisfactory  evidence. 
Is  it  not  time  that  we  should  ask  the  question, 
^  Do  we  really  believe  that  extraordinary  levita¬ 
tion  occurred  and  that  Jesus  Christ  was  seen 
rising  in  the  air  until  passing  clouds  concealed 
Him  from  view,  and  that  then  He  passed 
through  the  air  to  a  place  called  heaven  ?  ’  ” 
And  the  answer  is  we  are  asked  to  believe  noth¬ 
ing  so  grotesque !  The  Bible  is  emphatic  upon 
one  point — namely,  that  Flesh  and  blood  can¬ 
not  inherit  the  Kingdom  of  God.”  The  body 
of  Jesus  that  “  ascended  ”  was  not  a  material 
body  like  ours.  It  was  a  spiritual  body  belong¬ 
ing  already  to  the  spiritual  world. 

The  Biblical  account  of  the  matter  is  straight- 


138  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’’ 


forward  enough.  Mark  says,  He  was  re¬ 
ceived  up  into  heaven.”  St.  Luke  says,  “A 
cloud  received  him  out  of  their  sight.”  If  we 
can  suppress  our  imagination  and  not  allow 
childish  pictures  to  dominate  us,  we  shall  find 
these  two  sentences  present  us  with  the  abso¬ 
lute  minimum  of  description  in  terms  that  are 
capable  of  a  rational  and  spiritual  interpreta¬ 
tion.  All  we  are  entitled  to  say  is  that  our 
Lord  was  shut  off  from  earth.  What  we  call 
the  Ascension  was  His  entrance  upon  His 
spiritual  reign.  His  spiritual  body  passed 
into  the  spirit  sphere  where  He  now  reigns  as 
the  absolute  Master. 

That  spiritual  world  is  represented  in  the 
Bible  as  being  near  to  us.  We  have  innumer¬ 
able  stories  of  the  disclosure  to  man  of  that 
mysterious  world.  In  the  light  of  modern 
psychical  research  we  can  no  longer  dismiss 
with  a  gesture  the  Biblical  stories  of  Elisha  and 
the  angelic  host,  the  appearance  of  Moses  and 
Elias  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  the 
trance  hearing  of  St.  Paul  and  other  similar 
phenomena.  These  stories  are  now  no  longer 
isolated.  They  are  seen  in  the  light  of  growing 
experience,  to  be  part  of  a  vast  body  of  testi¬ 
mony  to  the  reality  of  the  spiritual  world. 
When  we  have  heavily  discounted  all  medi- 
umistic  claims,  and  sifted  to  the  extreme  limit 


‘‘HE  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN^’  139 


supposed  supernatural  appearances,  we  are  still 
left  v/ith  such  an  amazing  amount  of  genuine 
material,  that  to  deny  its  reality  is  an  act  of 
unpardonable  folly.  To  speak  of  one  thing 
only,  the  carefully  investigated  cases,  number¬ 
ing  several  thousands,  which  M.  Camille  Flam- 
marion  has  collected  over  a  period  of  many 
years,  are  so  overwhelming  and  impressive  that 
we  can  do  no  other  than  accept  them  as  true. 
And  what  experience  witnesses  to,  science  and 
philosophy  confirm. 

It  is  now  some  years  since  Professors  Bal¬ 
four  Stewart  and  Tait,  two  eminent  scientists 
(and  also  Elders  of  the  Presbyterian  Church), 
published  their  book  “  The  Unseen  Universe,’’ 
the  main  thesis  of  which  is  that  the  visible 
material  universe  is  but  the  temporary  expres¬ 
sion  of  an  invisible  and  spiritual  universe. 
From  the  invisible  the  visible  has  proceeded, 
and  when  the  visible  has  run  its  course,  it  will 
be  re-absorbed  into  the  invisible.  The  world 
smiled  when  this  book  first  appeared.  To-day 
it  does  not  smile,  for  its  thesis  is  supported  by 
the  teaching  of  modem  science.  The  whole 
conception  of  matter  has  entirely  changed.  The 
greatest  scientists  are  telling  us  that  we  must 
think  of  matter  in  entirely  new  terms:  in  terms 
indeed,  of  the  spiritual.  F.  W.  H.  Myers, 
author  of  those  two  wonderful  volumes,  “  Hu- 


140  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN'^ 


man  Personality  ”  and  “  Survival  after  Death,” 
ventured  the  prediction  that  within  one  hun¬ 
dred  years  every  sane  man  in  the  world  will 
believe  in  the  Resurrection  of  Christ  (and,  I 
would  add,  the  Ascension  also),  not  only  on 
Biblical,  but  also  on  scientific  grounds.  And 
these  are  definitely  pointing  in  this  direction. 
Rehabilitation  of  belief  in  the  spiritual  as  su¬ 
preme  is  certain  and  science  is  making  no  small 
contribution  to  it.  The  Victorian  materialism 
is  dead  and  discredited. 

Nobody  to-day  has  a  good  word  to  say  for  it. 
It  is  now  the  fashion  to  regard  Herbert 
Spencer  as  a  “  philosophical  charlatan.”  We 
shall  yet  understand  that  our  Lord,  as  the  Son 
of  God,  came  forth  from  the  invisible  spiritual 
world,  became  incarnate,  was  crucified,  arose 
from  the  dead  and  returned  with  a  glorified 
body  to  His  first  home.  And  the  Ascension 
will  yet  be  seen  to  be  quite  natural  to  Him  and 
also  to  be  part  of  the  universal  order. 

The  Ascension  then  was  in  reality  the  pass¬ 
ing  of  our  Lord's  spiritual  body  into  the 
spiritual  world  that  surrounds  us.  No  point  of 
'  geography  marks  it.  The  world  in  ^which  He 
now  lives  and  reigns  is  invisible  to  the  human 
eye,  but  it  is  real. 

What  was  the  meaning  of  the  Ascension  for 
our  Lord,  and  what  is  its  meaning  for  us.S 


'‘HE  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’’  141 


There  are  certain  implications  that  we  must 
face.  For  Him  its  meaning  is  summed  up  in 
one  word:  “  He  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of 
God.”  The  meaning  of  the  Ascension  for  us  is 
summed  up  in  the  other  word:  “  He  is  our  fore¬ 
runner.”  These  two  sentences  comprise  the 
whole.  Now,  what  is  the  meaning  of  that 
expression:  “At  the  right  hand  of  God  ”  ? 

It  is  purely  a  Biblical  phrase  indicating  the 
possession  of  supreme  power.  To  be  at  God’s 
right  hand  is  to  have  supreme  power,  and  that 
is  what  our  Lord  possesses.  He  has  a  three¬ 
fold  supremacy — a  supremacy  of  priesthood,  a 
supremacy  of  prophecy,  and  a  supremacy  of 
kingship.  First,  a  supremacy  of  priesthood. 
In  what  work  is  Jesus  Christ  engaged  on  the 
other  side  of  the  veil?  In  the  work  of  priest¬ 
hood.  “  He  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost 
them  that  draw  near  unto  God  through  him, 
seeing  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for 
them  ”  (Heb.  7:  25).  He  is  alive  ever  exercis¬ 
ing  a  ministry  of  priesthood.  “  He  ever  liveth 
to  make  intercession  for  us,”  and  “  to  save  to 
the  uttermost  them  that  come  unto  God  through 
him.”  The  Ascension,  then,  is  no  mere 
dogma,  beginning  and  ending  with  itself.  It 
is  linked  to  a  force  of  priesthood  which  Christ 
exercises  in  the  spiritual  world  on  behalf  of 
man.  But  He  possesses  a  second  thing — a 


142  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’’ 


supreme  power  of  prophecy.  “  Nevertheless  I 
tell  you  the  truth:  it  is  expedient  for  you  that 
I  go  away;  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter 
will  not  come  unto  you;  but  if  I  go  I  will  send 
him  unto  you.”  ‘‘  I  have  yet  many  things  to 
say  unto  you,  but  you  cannot  bear  them  now. 
Howbeit  when  he,  the  spirit  of  truth,  is  come, 
he  shall  guide  you  into  all  the  truth,  for  he 
shall  not  speak  from  himself ;  but  what  things 
soever  he  shall  hear,  these  shall  he  speak,  and 
he  shall  declare  unto  you  the  things  that  are  to 
come  ”  (St.  John  16:  7-12).  That  is  the  sec¬ 
ond  thing  that  arises  out  of  Christ’s  ascension — 
progress,  prophecy,  enlarged  truth. 

His  passing  into  the  spiritual  world  enlarged 
His  sphere  of  influence.  In  the  days  of  His 
flesh  He  was  necessarily  limited  by  the  condi¬ 
tions  of  his  human  life.  He  told  His  disciples 
that  He  had  much  more  to  teach  them,  but  they 
were  not  ready  for  it.  He  promised  that  from 
the  other  side  He  would  continue  to  teach  and 
to  lead  through  His  Spirit,  and  that  the  whole 
domain  of  truth  should  be  eventually  theirs. 
He  guaranteed  progress  in  truth.  This  is  a 
thought  that  should  appeal  to  modern  people 
who  are  enamoured  of  progress.  It  should 
also  make  them  pause  and  ask  in  what  true 
progress  consists.  Progress  is  not  to  tear  up 
the  ancient  root  and  plant  in  its  place  a  new 


“HE  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’'  143 


branch.  No  fruit  is  ever  borne  in  that  way. 
It  consists  in  retaining  the  old  root  and  send¬ 
ing  it  ever  deeper  into  the  soil,  but  also  develop¬ 
ing  ever  wider  branches  until  the  limit  of  de¬ 
velopment  is  reached.  Many  who  call  them¬ 
selves  “  progressives  ”  have  no  fixed  root. 
They  sever  themselves  from  the  past,  imagin¬ 
ing  that  only  the  new  things  are  true.  On  the 
other  hand  there  are  many  Christian  people 
who  cling  to  the  root — to  the  past — and  suspect 
every  new  development.  Both  these  positions 
are  fatal  to  real  progress.  Christ  remains  ever 
the  same,  and  nothing  can  destroy  the  fact  that 
He  appeared  in  time,  became  incarnate,  died, 
and  rose  again  for  our  redemption.  But  our 
comprehension  of  Christ  and  our  application  of 
His  truth  to  life  must  continually  develop. 
And  this  is  only  possible  as  we  accept  His 
supremacy  as  prophet  and  faithfully  follow  the 
guidance  of  His  Spirit.  There  is  no  risk  in  this 
so  long  as  the  human  spirit  remains  humble, 
modest  and  obedient. 

The  third  and  last  thing  that  Christ  exercises 
is  the  supreme  power  of  Kingship.  In  the 
fourth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians 
there  is  a  wonderful  picture  drawn  by  St.  Paul: 

Wherefore  he  saith,  When  he  ascended  on 
high,  he  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts 
tmto  men.”  “  He  gave  some  to  be  apostles ;  and 


144  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN’’ 


some  prophets ;  and  some  evangelists ;  and  some 
pastors  and  teachers.”  Why  did  He  give 
these?  For  the  perfecting  of  the  saints.” 
It  is  a  carpenter’s  word,  meaning  to  fit  part  to 
part  and  so  complete  the  whole.  Christ  gave 
varied  ministries,  to  put  Christian  people  into 
proper  relation  with  God  and  each  other,  to  fit, 
to  adjust  them  for  life.  That  is  one  of  the 
fruits  of  the  Ascension.  But  it  is  set  forth 
under  a  vivid  illustration;  that  of  a  Roman 
military  victory.  The  conqueror  enters  the  city, 
bringing  his  captives  with  him,  and  then  dis¬ 
tributes  gifts  to  men.  Under  this  simile  St. 
Paul  sets  forth  the  victorious  work  of  our  Lord 
beyond  the  veil.  ‘‘  He  led  captivity  captive,  and 
gave  gifts  unto  men.”  Every  great  and  good 
gift  there  is  in  the  Church  and  world  to-day 
streams  from  the  person  of  the  living  Christ, 
who  is  at  work  close  to  us  on  the  other  side  of 
the  veil.  If  when  we  say  we  believe  Christ 
ascended  into  heaven  we  understood  more  fully 
its  meaning,  how  enriched  would  life  be!  We 
may  be  victors  because  He  is  King;  we  may  be 
perfectly  saved  because  He  is  our  priest;  we 
may  be  perfectly  instructed  because  He  is  our 
•prophet.  These  are  the  consequences  for  our 
life,  of  Christ  having  gone  beyond  the  veil. 

There  is  an  implication  of  the  Ascension  for 
ourselves.  ‘‘We  have  an  anchor  of  the  soul,  a 


N 


ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN^’  145 


hope  both  sure  and  steadfast,  and  entering  into 
that  which  is  within  the  veil  whither  as  a  fore¬ 
runner  Jesus  entered  for  us''  (Heb.  6:  19). 
A  forerunner  "  is  one  who  runs  on  before 
to  announce  a  coming,  and  to  make  preparation 
for  it.  That  is  what  Jesus  has  done.  He  has 
gone  before  to  prepare  for  our  coming.  On 
the  night  of  His  betrayal  He  said,  “  Let  not 
your  heart  be  troubled.  In  my  Father’s  house 
there  are  many  abiding  places.  If  it  were  not 
so  I  would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a 
place  for  you.”  It  is  a  great  thing  to  have 
some  one  precede  us  and  prepare  a  place  for  us, 
to  know  that  when  we  cross  the  border  we 
shall  not  wander  in  an  unexplored  country. 
There  will  be  a  Friend  waiting  for  us.  When 
our  time  comes  for  passing  into  the  spirit 
world,  we  shall  go  to  no  cold  and  solitary 
country,  but  to  a  home  prepared  by  the  Christ 
who  has  gone  before.  Can  there  be  a  greater 
consolation  for  the  heart  ? 

‘‘  Grant,  we  beseech  Thee,  Almighty  God, 
that  like  as  we  do  believe  Thy  only-begotten 
Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  have  ascended 
into  the  heavens  ;  so  we  may  also  in  heart  and 
mind  thither  ascend,  and  with  Him  continually 
dwell,  who  liveth  and  reigneth  with  Thee  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  one  God,  world  without  end.” 


X 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 

A  CENTURY  ago  the  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  commonly  “  proved  by 
an  appeal  to  His  miracles.  Christians 
repeated  the  word  of  Nicodemus,  ‘‘  No  man 
can  do  the  works  thou  doest  except  God  be 
with  him.’’  To-day  the  pendulum  has  swung 
to  the  opposite  extreme. 

There  are  many  earnest  Christian  people  who 
follow  Christ,  and  who  accept  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  as  their  guide,  who  nevertheless  are  in 
trouble  about  the  miracles.  They  do  not  know 
how  to  ‘‘  place  ”  them — particularly  in  the  light 
of  that  mass  of  knowledge  that  has  come  to  us 
through  modern  science.  With  others  there  is 
a  tendency  to  drop  miracles  altogether  on  the 
ground  that  a  non-miraculous  Christianity  is 
more  credible  than  a  miraculous  one.  They 
say  we  can  retain  the  ideas  and  ideals  of  the 
Gospel  without  being  bound  to  their  form. 

Meanwhile,  the  lookers  on  make  merry  over 
the  spectacle.  ‘‘  Christians,”  they  say,  “  of  the 

Protestant  Churches  do  not  know  where  they 

146 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


147 


are.  They  have  eliminated  the  supernatural 
little  by  little,  until  at  last  there  is  nothing  but 
the  shell  of  their  religion  left.”  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
has  gained  from  Protestantism  and  that 
Protestants  have  lost  to  indifferentism  or  scep¬ 
ticism  no  inconsiderable  number  of  people 
on  this  account.  We  ought  to  try  and  make 
up  our  minds  about  the  matter  in  a  way  that  is 
at  once  rational  and  devout. 

With  those  superior  persons  who  mistake  a 
wave  of  the  hand  for  a  serious  argument  we 
have  nothing  to  do.  “  Miracles  do  not  hap¬ 
pen,”  they  say,  and  that  is  the  beginning  and 
end  of  the  thing  for  them.  Persons  who  so 
airily  dismiss  a  grave  matter  may,  in  turn, 
themselves  expect  to  be  easily  and  airily  dis¬ 
missed.  Where  no  reason  is  advanced,  no  rea¬ 
son  need  be  opposed.  When  persons  will  not 
condescend  to  offer  some  show  of  reason  for 
their  assertions,  we  must  not  be  arraigned  if 
we,  on  our  part,  decline  controversy  with  such. 
To  reason  we  will  oppose  reason,  but  to  a  mere 
dictum  it  is  sufficient  to  oppose  a  mere  dictum. 

There  are  two  preliminary  things  to  be 
stated.  The  first  is  this:  we  are  by  no  means 
tied  down  to  the  English  word  “  miracle.”  It 
might  be  better  indeed  to  abandon  it  as  liable 
to  mislead.  The  word  “  miracle  ”  is  an  Eng- 


148  THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


lish  word,  or  rather  a  foreign  word  untrans¬ 
lated,  but  it  quite  properly  disappears  from  the 
Revised  Version.  There  are,  in  that  version, 
three  other  words  used  in  place  of  the  word 
miracle.”  If  we  can  find  a  better  English 
word  (a  word,  observe,  because  the  word  is  the 
stumbling  block  in  many  cases)  than  the  word 
miracle  ”  we  are  quite  at  liberty  to  use  it. 
The  essential  thing  is  to  hold  to  the  fact  that  is 
behind  the  word.  The  revisers  of  the  New 
Testament  employ  better  words  than  the  word 
“  miracle.”  They  used  ‘‘  mighty  works  ”  and 
“  energies.”  When  we  speak  of  a  “  miracle  ” 
we  think  of  something  wonderful  belonging  to 
the  order  of  magic.  Is  it  necessary  to  say  that 
the  ‘‘  mighty  works  ”  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  magical 
manifestations,  and  we  ought  no  longer  to 
employ  any  word  that  suggests  these  things. 
A  second  preliminary  thing  is  this:  We  are  fre¬ 
quently  told  that  what  we  call  miracles  ” 
(using  the  word  simply  for  the  purpose  of 
convenience)  do  not  belong  to  the  original 
Gospel  at  all;  they  represent  a  legendary 
growth  of  a  late  date.  But  this  position  can¬ 
not  be  sustained  for  a  moment  because,  in  the 
earliest  Gospel — Mark — we  have  the  most  of 
‘‘  miracle.”  By  the  general  admission  of 
scholars  Mark  goes  back  nearest  to  the  sources. 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS  149 


and  it  is  in  that  Gospel  that  we  have  most  of 
“  miracle.”  If  then  the  miracles  ”  represent 
a  legendary  growth  as  frequently  alleged,  we 
should  find  them  complete  in  the  latest  Gospel, 
and  not  in  the  earliest.  But  the  singular  thing 
is,  that  in  the  latest  Gospel- — ^John — which 
dates  between  90  and  100  a.  d.,  there  is  least  of 
“  miracle.”  So  that  the  idea  continually  bruited 
to-day  about  legendary  growth  obviously  is 
without  foundation.  If  it  were  true,  Mark 
should  have  the  least  about  “miracle,”  and 
John  the  most,  but  as  we  see,  the  reverse  is  the 
case.  We  are  no  nearer  a  solution  of  the 
matter  by  referring  the  whole  question  to  the 
domain  of  legend. 

The  first  emphasis  must  be  placed  upon  what 
may  be  called  the  master  miracle.  It  is  absurd 
to  commence  with  such  outposts  as  the  affair  of 
the  swine  at  Gadara  and  make  the  whole  ques¬ 
tion  turn  upon  that,  as  Huxley,  in  his  con¬ 
troversy  with  Gladstone,  sought  to  do. — It  is 
a  fundamental  principle  that  the  worker  must 
be  greater  than  his  work.  The  master  miracle 
of  the  Gospels  is  not  the  raising  of  Lazarus 
from  the  dead;  nor  the  walking  on  the  water; 
nor  the  turning  of  water  into  wine;  nor  the 
multiplication  of  loaves  and  fishes.  The  master 
miracle  is  Jesus  Christ  Himself.  He  is  the 
great  miracle — a  miracle  of  holiness,  a  miracle 


150  THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


of  personality,  a  miracle  of  love,  a  miracle  of 
power,  a  miracle  of  manhood,  a  miracle  of 
divinity.  It  is  in  the  light  of  His  Supreme 
Person  that  we  must  study  the  “  miracles,''  and 
we  may  then  see  that  His  ‘‘  mighty  works  " 
were  entirely  harmonious  with  His  unique 
Person ;  and  further  that  they  are  part  of  Him¬ 
self.  The  mistake  commonly  made  concerning 
the  miracles  of  our  Lord  is  to  look  upon  them 
as  something  quite  apart,  detached  from  the 
“  Gospel,"  and  capable  of  separate  treatment. 
Such  a  view  is  utterly  astray  and  quite  un¬ 
scientific.  The  miracles  of  Christ  are  part  of 
Christ,  and  we  cannot  consider  them  apart 
from  Him. 

As  He  was  unique,  so  are  they  unique.  There 
is  nothing  else  like  them.  If  any  one  desires 
to  understand  how  perfectly  exceptional  are  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  has  only  to  com¬ 
pare  them  with  the  stories  of  other  miracles 
with  which  the  world  abotmds.  The  immense 
abyss  between  the  Gospel  miracles  and  legen¬ 
dary  happenings  can  best  be  understood  by  a 
close  study  of  the  Apocryphal  Gospels,  where 
any  number  of  impossible  and  puerile  stories 
are  recorded.  Such  stories  as  these  are  not  in 
our  Gospels. 

It  is  only  by  comparing  the  two  that  we  per¬ 
ceive  the  difference  between  the  chaff  and  the 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


151 


wheat.  We  must  understand,  further,  that  the 
miracles  of  our  Lord  were  not  prodigies — that 
is  to  say,  they  were  not  mere  displays  of  won¬ 
derful  power  for  the  purpose  of  startling  peo¬ 
ple.  Matthew  Arnold,  referring  to  the  miracles 
of  Christ,  asked,  “  What  evidence  of  authority 
could  it  be  if  a  person  changed  a  pen  into  a 
pen-wiper  before  our  eyes?’’  But  when  he 
asked  that  ridiculous  question  Matthew  Arnold 
fell  a  great  way  below  his  own  proper  intellec¬ 
tual  level.  To  change  a  pen  into  a  pen-wiper 
would  be  a  trick  of  conjuring,  without  moral 
value,  and  there  is  nothing  of  that  character  in 
the  four  Gospels.  Nothing  there  of  the  merely 
marvellous,  nothing  of  the  merely  super-nor¬ 
mal,  nothing  of  the  merely  astonishing.  There 
is  nothing  that  in  the  least  degree  resembles 
the  changing  of  a  pen  into  a  pen-wiper  for  the 
sake  of  exhibiting  cleverness.  The  miracles  of 
Christ  are  absolutely  unique.  They  have  noth¬ 
ing  to  do  with  prodigies  or  displays  of  occult 
power.  Further,  if  we  read  carefully  and 
without  prejudice  the  four  Gospels,  we  must 
be  struck  with  the  severe  economy  which 
marks  the  performance  of  our  Lord’s  miracles. 
He  never  wrought  a  miracle  to  astonish.  He 
never  wrought  a  miracle  for  His  own  personal 
enrichment.  He  who  could  feed  five  thousand 
people  from  five  loaves  and  two  fishes  could 


152  THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


yet  say  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  no  place 
where  to  lay  his  head.” 

But  still  more  astonishing.  He  never 
wrought  a  miracle  for  the  hurt  of  His  enemies. 
When  Simon  Peter  drew  his  sword  and  severed 
the  ear  of  Malchus,  Jesus  touched  the  sufferer 
and  healed  him.  At  that  supreme  moment 
Jesus  Christ  wrought  a  work  of  healing. 
Sometimes  He  refused  to  work  miracles.  And 
often  the  Lord  enjoined  silence  upon  those  who 
were  the  subjects  of  His  mighty  works.  The 
severe  economy  of  the  miracles  is  an  outstand¬ 
ing  and  wonderful  thing.  It  is  clear  then  that 
the  miracles  of  Christ  whatever  they  were  are 
taken  completely  out  of  the  region  of  wonder¬ 
land  into  a  moral  and  spiritual  region.  They 
are  not  to  be  regarded  as  mere  displays  of 
power,  but  they  must  be  regarded  from  the 
moral  and  spiritual  standpoint. 

Studying  the  matter  more  closely  we  per¬ 
ceive  that  the  miracles  of  our  Lord  are  entirely 
harmonious  with  His  person  and  with  His 
purpose.  In  St.  Luke  4  and  St.  John  10  we 
have  a  threefold  key  that  completely  unlocks 
the  mystery  of  Christ’s  miracles.  In  Luke 
4:  14  We  have  the  account  of  the  commence¬ 
ment  of  Christ’s  public  ministry.  What  is  the 
key-note?  The  temptation  over,  “Jesus  re¬ 
turned  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  into  Galilee.” 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS  153 


The  power  in  which  our  Lord  lived  His  life 
and  work  was  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
He  commenced  His  public  ministry  thus,  and 
continued  so  until  the  end.  Later  Jesus  began 
His  work  as  a  preacher.  What  is  the  key-note 
of  His  ministry?  “  He  opened  the  book  and 
found  the  place  where  it  was  written:  The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  ap¬ 
pointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the 
poor ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the 
captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  pro¬ 
claim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord  ”  (Luke 
4:  18).  In  other  words,  Jesus  appears  as  the 
repairer  of  human  damage  and  the  perfecter  of 
human  life. 

In  St.  John  10:  10,  the  whole  ministry  of 
Christ  is  summed  up  in  a  sentence :  “  I  came 
that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might 
have  it  more  abundantly.’’  These  three  pas¬ 
sages  sum  up  our  Lord’s  purpose  and  pro¬ 
gramme.  The  power  in  which  He  lived  and  by 
which  He  accomplished  His  work  was  the 
power  of  the  Spirit.  And  His  programme  for 
men  was  to  repair  human  damage  and  to  fulfill 
human  destiny.  These  three  things  give  us 
the  triple  key  for  the  unlocking  of  the  mys¬ 
tery  of  our  Lord’s  miracles. 

As  already  intimated  “  miracles  ”  are  design 


154 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


nated  in  the  Revised  Version  mighty  works,” 
and  “  energies.”  Both  of  these  are  scientific 
words.  The  word  “dunamis”  is  the  word  from 
which  we  derive  our  English  word  dynamic. 
The  power  then  by  which  Jesus  wrought 
His  mighty  works  was  a  Divine  energy 
— a  force  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  having  authority 
over  nature  and  man.  It  is  from  this  point  of 
view  that  we  must  regard  His  miracles.  It  is 
recorded  that  He  walked  on  the  water,  raised 
the  dead,  and  stilled  the  tempest.  The  modern 
man  says  he  does  not  believe  these  things  oc¬ 
curred.  But  the  Christ,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
special  and  unique.  Why  should  He  not  do 
special  and  unique  works  ?  It  is  not  a  question 
of  “  anybody  ”  doing  these  works,  but  a  ques¬ 
tion  of  Christ  doing  them.  Are  we  in  a  posi¬ 
tion  to  say  that  there  is  no  higher  power  in  the 
universe  than  we  know  or  that  we  at  present 
can  use  ? 

But  now  let  us  use  the  second  key.  Christ 
came  to  bring  light  to  darkened  minds  and 
souls.  If  He  had  power  to  lighten  darkened 
minds,  why  should  He  not  have  the  power  to 
lighten  darkened  eyes?  If  He  could  do  the 
greater  why  not  the  lesser  ?  He  came  to  bring 
dead  souls  to  God,  and  if  it  pleased  Him  to 
raise  dead  bodies  for  a  special  purpose,  why 
should  He  not  do  it?  Do  we  know  all  the 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS  155 


mystery  of  life  and  death?  If  the  evidence  is 
there  that  He  did  so,  why  should  we  pit  our 
ignorance  against  it  ? 

Again:  why  did  Jesus  walk  on  the  sea? 
Was  it  simply  to  show  that  He  could  perform  a 
prodigy?  No,  it  was  to  relieve  the  distress  of 
His  friends  in  the  little  boat.  It  was  a  work 
of  love,  of  benevolence.  Why  did  He  multiply 
the  loaves  and  the  fishes?  Again,  it  was  to 
relieve  human  need.  The  miracles  of  Christ 
fit  in  with  the  powers  He  possessed  and  the 
programme  of  redemption  that  He  came  to 
carry  out.  The  third  and  last  thing  is  that  they 
fit  in  with  Christ’s  programme  of  fulfilling 
human  destiny.  Jesus  Christ  came  to  give 
life — spiritual,  eternal  ”  life — life  to  the 
spirit,  life  to  the  entire  man.  But  body  and 
spirit  are  very  closely  allied.  It  is  hard  to  tell 
where  the  body  ends  and  the  soul  begins.  Who 
can  explain  the  mystery  of  spirit  and  matter? 

Another  great  word  for  ‘‘  miracle  ”  in  the 
Revised  Version  is  sign.”  “  These  signs 
Jesus  did.”  Jesus  Christ’s  miracles  were  signs: 
signals,  the  ringing  of  a  bell,  to  call  attention 
in  the  lower  sphere  to  something  He  was  doing 
in  the  higher  sphere.  Further,  not  only  were 
the  miracles  of  Christ  harmonious  with  His 
person  and  purpose,  but  they  were  necessary  to 
them.  Jesus  Christ  was  at  home  in  two 


156  THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


worlds.  He  spoke  about  the  spiritual  world 
as  if  He  knew  all  about  it — as  He  did.  ‘‘  The 
Son  of  Man  came  down  from  heaven.'' 

Glorify  me  with  the  glory  that  I  had  with 
thee  before  the  world  was."  He  speaks  as 
one  who  had  been  there.  He  was  at  home  in 
two  worlds,  and  had  His  life  been  without 
''  miracles,"  He  Himself  would  have  been  a 
contradiction.  To  eliminate  the  miracles 
would  be  to  impoverish  absolutely  our  concep¬ 
tion  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  we  rid  ourselves  of 
the  miraculous  Christ,  who  did  miraculous 
works,  we  shall  find  ourselves  with  an  anaemic 
religion,  entirely  valueless  for  spiritual  and 
ethical  purposes.  But  are  the  stories  his¬ 
torically  true?  The  miracles  of  Christ  are  a 
genuine  part  of  apostolic  tradition.  They  are 
not  a  later  interpolation.  Peter  on  the  Day  of 
Pentecost  pointed  to  them.  In  Jerusalem, 
where  Jesus  Christ  was  crucified,  he  speaks  of 
the  mighty  works  and  wonders  and  signs,  “  as 
you  yourselves  know."  It  was  an  appeal  to 
what  they  had  seen.  None  of  Christ's  con¬ 
temporaries  denied  the  reality  of  the  miracles; 
they  tried  to  explain  them,  which  is  quite  an¬ 
other  thing.  They  said,  ‘‘  By  Beelzebub,  the 
prince  of  the  devils,  casteth  he  out  devils.” 
The  apostles,  too,  who  record  Christ's  miracles, 
also  record  their  own  great  works.  But  it  is 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS  157 


very  remarkable  that  they  always  attribute 
them  to  the  power  of  Christ’s  name,  and  not  to 
their  own  power.  The  evidential  value  of  this 
is  not  small. 

Further,  the  disciples  who  recorded  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  never  record  any  “  Nature 
miracles  ”  of  their  own.  They  attribute  to 
Jesus  Christ  Nature  miracles — power  over 
wind  and  sea — but  never  any  such  tO'  them¬ 
selves.  Theirs  were  all  works  of  healing.  If 
these  disciples  had  wished  to  idealize  Jesus 
Christ  and  add  legend  to  history,  would  they 
have  recorded  even  miracles  of  healing  of 
themselves?  If  they  spake  falsely  about  the 
whole  thing,  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  were 
not  very  picturesque  in  their  falsehood. 

But  how  can  we  believe  in  the  miracles  of 
Christ  in  the  light  of  the  modern  outlook  upon 
Nature?  We  are  told  that  modern  science  has 
made  belief  in  them  impossible.  Is  that  true? 
Suppose  that  science  should  have  its  false 
prophets  as  well  as  religion !  May  there  not  be 
false  prophets  in  the  lecture-room  as  well  as  in 
the  pulpit  ?  It  is  not  true  that  “  science  ”  says 
miracles  have  never  happened;  some  scien¬ 
tists  say  so.  “  Science  ”  itself  cannot  say 
so,  since  other  men  who  are  equally  good 
scientists  believe  in  the  miraculous.”  The 
objection,  in  the  name  of  science,  to  miracles. 


158 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


is  a  double  one  and  is  based  on  two  false 
premises ;  i.  e.,  first,  that  miracle  is  an  inter¬ 
ference”  with  Nature  from  without,  and 
second,  that  God  is  no  longer  at  work  in  His 
own  world.  God  may  have  created  the  world, 
but  He  has  now  left  it  to  itself,  and  He  no 
longer  interferes  in  its  management.  Both 
these  assumptions  are  entirely  untrue.  Nature 
as  we  understand  it,  and  Nature  as  God  knows 
it,  may  be  very  different,  and  we  cannot 
measure  the  whole  by  our  part. 

‘‘All’s  love  yet  all’s  law,”  as  Browning  says. 
It  is  not  modest  to  assume  that  the  universe  as 
we  know  it  is  the  universe  as  it  really  is.  Con¬ 
sider  what  rapid  strides  we  have  made  during 
the  last  hundred  years!  Is  it  scientific  to  as¬ 
sume  that  the  mechanical  and  chemical  ele¬ 
ments  that  we  are  just  beginning  to  understand 
are  the  only  powers  that  exist  in  the  universe, 
in  the  name  of  which  we  may  deny  the 
mighty  works  of  Christ?  The  second  false 
assumption  is  that  God  is  no  longer  at  work  in 
His  own  world.  But  the  tendency  of  all 
modern  thinking  is  toward  the  belief  in  a  God 
immanent  in  the  universe ;  and  ever  at  work  in 
it.  This  is  not  to  deny  His  Transcendence  but 
to  affirm  something  else.  Long  ago  Jesus  ex¬ 
pressed  this  truth  in  one  sentence — “  My  Fa¬ 
ther  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work.”  St.  Paul 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


159 


states  the  case  in  the  sentence,  “  He  is  in  all 
things,  and  in  him  all  things  hold  together.” 
That  is  not  Pantheism  but  Theism. 

But  belief  in  the  Immanence  of  God  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  He  is  at  work  in 
ordinary  things  as  well  as  in  extraordinary 
things.  Yet  there  is  always  room  for  any  dis¬ 
play  of  His  power  that  His  wisdom  and  love 
deem  ht  to  exercise.  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  pictures 
a  train  going  through  from  the  Cape  to  Cairo. 
It  runs  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour  with¬ 
out  stopping;  passing  through  a  savage 
countr}^  Every  day  for  a  year  this  express 
passes  until  the  natives  assume  that  the  train 
runs  by  some  fixed  law,  and  cannot  otherwise 
go.  But  one  day  a  white  man  explains  that 
the  running  of  this  train  is  arranged  in  the 
directors’  office.  ‘‘  Directors’  office,”  they  cry; 

we  believe  in  no  such  office ;  we  have  never 
seen  it.”  All  they  believe  is  that  the  train 
runs  day  after  day  in  the  same  manner,  and 
that  it  cannot  run  otherwise.  The  white  man 
explains,  however,  that  it  is  possible  to  get  the 
train  stopped  en  route  if  the  directors  see 
reason  for  it.  The  natives  reply,  “  Train  stop! 
Impossible !  Miracles  do  not  happen !  ”  And 
yet  we  know  that  the  train  may  be  stopped. 

The  illustration  is  a  little  rough,  and  by  no 
means  perfect.  We  do  not  conceive  of  the 


160 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


universe  in  terms  of  machinery  and  a  directors* 
office.  All  terms  in  use  to-day  are  biological 
and  vitalistic.  And  what  happens  with 
directed  machinery  does  not  happen  with  living 
things.  Yet  the  principle  of  the  illustration 
is  sound  and  it  is  simply  this — that  the  living 
power  of  God  is  equal  to  modifications  of 
ordinary  movements  and  events,  if  there  is 
sufficient  reason  for  such  modification.  Na¬ 
ture  is  not  a  closed  system  in  which  things 
must  always  happen  in  one  way.  “  Law  can 
modify  law.”  A  spiritual  law  can  operate 
from  above  in  the  control  of  matter.  The  last 
word  is  always  with  mind.  There  is  room 
therefore  in  a  world  controlled  by  “  law,”  for 
those  manifestations  of  spiritual  energy  result¬ 
ing  in  exceptional  changes,  which  the  Gospels 
attribute  to  Jesus  Christ. — Whether  they  hap¬ 
pened  or  not  is  entirely  a  question  of  evidence. 

The  miracles  of  Christ  were  a  special  sign, 
a  signal,  a  ringing  of  a  bell  in  the  natural  world 
to  call  attention  to  His  working  in  the  higher 
realm.  But  the  question  is  bound  to  be  asked. 
How  is  it  that  we  have  no  miracles  to-day? 

And  the  reply  generally  given  is  for  the 
same  reason  that  for  grown  men  the  alphabet 
is  no  longer  necessary,  being  absorbed  in  a  full 
vocabulary.  There  is  no  need  for  them.  We 
have  Jesus  reigning  over  human  hearts  and 


THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


161 


wills,  and  there  is  no  need  now  for  a  repetition 
of  His  miracles.  Did  He  not  say,  “  If  they 
hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  they  will  not 
be  persuaded  though  one  rose  from  the  dead.” 

Yet  this  cannot  be  the  complete  truth.  An 
increasing  number  of  people  have  come  to  be¬ 
lieve  that  at  least  the  healing  works  of  Christ 
should  be  repeated  to-day,  and  that,  in  point  of 
fact,  they  are  repeated.  The  handing  over  of 
the  body  to  the  physician  and  the  surgeon 
(who,  in  a  number  of  cases,  are  pure  material¬ 
ists),  and  the  soul  to  the  minister  of  religion, 
is  seen  to  be  a  poor  division  of  labour.  Soul 
and  body  are  no  longer  sharply  divided,  as 
once  they  were.  The  best  of  the  physicians 
employ  spiritual  methods  of  healing.  Drugs 
are  increasingly  discredited.  What  may  be 
called  lower  spiritual  healing  is  in  constant 
practice.  But  often  enough,  this  has  no  ref¬ 
erence  whatever  to  Jesus  Christ. 

Some  ‘'mental  healers,”  indeed,  are  def¬ 
initely  anti-Christian.  The  whole  round  of 
their  operations  begins  and  ends  with  the 
human  organism.  All  the  completing  life 
forces,  they  affirm,  are  “  within  ourselves.” 
The  increasing  Christian  view  is  that  the 
mighty  works  of  Christ  were  Divine  and  that 
such  works  may  be  wrought  to-day  by  persons 
who  take  seriously  His  word,  “  He  that  be- 


162  THE  MIRACLES  OF  JESUS 


lieveth  on  me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do 
also,  and  greater  works  than  these  shall  he  do 
because  I  go  to  the  Father.’*  To  believe  ”  on 
Him  in  this  sense  is  to  live  on  a  spiritual  plane 
in  complete  union  with  Him.  A  perfect 
loyalty  to  Him  might  result  in  the  exercise  of 
quite  new  and  striking  “  powers,”  done  in  His 
name,  and  by  His  force,  that  would  convince 
a  sceptical  world  of  the  reality  of  His  presence 
with  His  Church,  and  also  of  the  reality  of  the 
Gospel  stories  which  affirm  His  mighty  work¬ 
ing  in  the  long  ago. 

The  best  people  in  the  world  are  moving 
forward  to  fuller  spiritual  conceptions  of 
human  life  and  are  believing  in  the  exercise  of 
mighty  powers  which,  through  unbelief,  has 
been  in  abeyance  for  centuries,  save  here  and 
there.  When  the  Church  comes  into  her  full 
spiritual  Pentecost  and  ceases  to  think  in 
material  terms,  then  we  shall  see  a  new  break¬ 
ing  forth  of  the  energies  of  God,  which  will 
compel  all  men  to  acknowledge  “  Jesus  Christ 
the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  forever.” 


XI 


JESUS  CHRIST  THE  REGENERATOR 
OF  THE  WORLD 

IT  was  Tuesday  in  the  week  of  the  Cruci¬ 
fixion.  Jerusalem  was  unusually  crowded 
with  visitors  who  had  arrived  from  all 
parts  to  assist  in  the  solemn  celebrations  of 
the  great  Jewish  paschal  feast.  The  excite¬ 
ment  caused  by  the  triumphal  procession  of 
Jesus  Christ  on  Palm  Sunday  had  not  yet  sub¬ 
sided.  Certain  Greeks  who  were  in  Jeru¬ 
salem  for  the  Festival,  moved  by  intense  in¬ 
terest,  desired  an  interview  with  Him,  who, 
two  days  previously,  had  stirred  the  city  and 
set  men  thinking.  They  wished  to  speak  with 
this  Royal  Man,  who,  simple  peasant  as  He  ap¬ 
peared  to  be,  nevertheless  bore  the  carriage  of 
a  Conqueror.  Jesus  received  them  and  spake 
to  them  a  most  remarkable  word.  In  a  sen¬ 
tence  He  overturned  their  material  expecta¬ 
tions  by  announcing  His  forthcoming  humilia¬ 
tion  and  death.  It  was  true  that  He  was  des¬ 
tined  to  conquer,  but  His  method  of  victory  did 
not  follow  the  order  prescribed  by  the  van¬ 
quishers  of  mankind.  He  likened  Himself  to 

163 


164  EEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD 


a  grain  of  wheat  which  must  “  die  ”  before  it 
could  fructify.  Within  a  few  hours  vile  and 
sordid  men  would  seize  Him,  bear  false  witness 
against  Him,  overcome  Him  by  sheer  brute 
force,  nail  Him  to  the  Cross,  and  keep  their 
vigil  while  His  life  ebbed  away.  But  that 
death.  He  declared,  was  His  predestined  way  to 
victory.  He  had  not  come  into  the  world  to 
multiply  processions  and  to  establish  a  tem¬ 
poral  Kingdom.  The  Empire  that  He  was 
founding  was  of  another  order.  His  subjects 
were  not  vassals,  cowed  in  the  presence  of  a 
police  or  a  soldiery  that  compelled  obedience: 
they  were  free  men  drawn  to  Him  by  the 
magnetism  of  a  Personality  which  compelled 
by  the  force  of  truth  and  love.  His  Cross,  He 
said,  was  the  magnet  by  which  the  entire  world 
should  be  drawn  to  Him. 

Three  days  later  He  hung  crucified  upon  the 
summit  of  Calvary — His  prediction  was  ful¬ 
filled  to  the  letter.  He  proved  Himself  to  be 
a  prophet  in  the  announcement  of  the  mode  of 
His  death.  Was  He  also  a  true  prophet  in 
predicting  that  all  .men  should  be  drawn  to 
Him? 

Nearly  nineteen  full  centuries  have  passed 
since  the  tragedy  of  Calvary  was  consum¬ 
mated.  The  era  of  prophecy  has  passed,  we 
live  in  the  light  of  history,  and  in  its  light  we 


EEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  165 


see  that  the  words  of  Jesus  have  been  fulfilled. 
In  the  broader  sense  Jesus  Christ  has  changed 
the  face  of  the  world,  and  men,  despite  them¬ 
selves,  have  been  drawn  ”  to  Him.  After  the 
cruel  illusions  of  a  century  of  industrial  prog¬ 
ress,  in  which  wealth  and  prosperity  have  been 
challenged  by  the  Frankenstein  of  poverty 
and  social  revolt ;  and  after  the  still  more  cruel 
illusions  which  a  world  war  has  exposed,  the 
world’s  best  thinkers  are  slowly  reaching  the 
conclusion  that  the  anti-Christian  way  of  liv¬ 
ing  has  been  fundamentally  wrong  in  principle 
and  oppressive  in  action,  and  that  the  only 
true  way  of  social  salvation  lies  in  a  return 
to  the  ethic  of  Jesus  Christ  The  leaders  of  the 
world,  with  a  few  notorious  exceptions,  are  be¬ 
ing  “  drawn  ”  to  Christ,  to  this  extent  at  least. 
— Externally  He  is  drawing  men  to  Himself,  to 
His  law  of  love,  to  His  method  of  settling 
differences,  to  His  way  of  regarding  God  and 
man,  to  His  programme  for  human  life.  The 
Story  of  Christ,”  as  written  by  Giovanni 
Papini,  is  something  more  than  the  literary 
production  of  a  journalistic  genius.  It  is  an 
advertisement  that  other  men,  besides  himself, 
have  received  the  shock  of  their  lives  through 
the  mad  experiences  of  the  last  decade,  and 
that  they  also,  with  him,  have  renounced  their 
atheism  and  found  in  Jesus  Christ  the  One  Per- 


166  EEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD 


son  who  alone  is  worthy,  by  reason  of  right,  to 
govern  the  conscience  and  life  of  mankind. 
Year  by  year  serious  people,  who  reflect  upon 
the  miseries  of  life,  are  coming  more  completely 
within  the  circle  of  the  attraction  of  Jesus. 
Not  yet  have  “  all  men,”  even  externally,  been 
drawn  to  Him,  but  time  and  events  are  with 
Him,  and  the  hour  must  come  when  His  pre¬ 
diction  will  be  absolutely  fulfilled. 

Meanwhile  He  is  drawing  people  to  Him¬ 
self  internally.  His  love  and  power,  from  the 
beginning,  have  captured  and  continue  to  cap¬ 
ture  multitudes  of  men  and  women  whose  al¬ 
legiance  to  Him  is  Sovereign;  to  whom  His 
every  word  is  law,  and  to  whom  His  will  is  the 
supreme  thing  in  life.  It  is  in  the  attraction 
of  these  souls  that  His  word  is  fully  accom¬ 
plished,  even  now.  The  fact  that  these  His 
adorers  and  devotees  are  in  a  minority  in  the 
midst  of  the  world  in  no  way  detracts  from 
the  greatness  of  Christ’s  promise.  Externally 
He  draws  all:  He  makes  all  aware  of  His  pres¬ 
ence  and  His  power.  The  world  is  His  and 
He  retains  its  government.  At  times  it  ap¬ 
pears  as  if  men  ruled  the  world  according  to 
their  own  passions.  But  things  are  not  as  they 
seem  to  be.  The  free  will  of  man  is  allowed 
an  immense  latitude,  but  history  makes  it  clear 
that  there  is  always  a  limit  beyond  which  hu- 


REGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  167 


man  pride  is  not  suffered  to  venture.  Revo¬ 
lutions  and  wars  with  their  attendant  wretch¬ 
edness  represent  the  automatic  punishment 
which  resistance  to  the  Divine  Order  brings  in 
its  train.  So  far  from  the  miseries  of  human 
life  demanding  as  their  explanation  the  ab¬ 
sence  of  Christ:  they  are  the  announcement  of 
His  presence  as  the  restorer  of  Order  by  the 
natural  law  of  whatever  a  man  or  a  nation 
sows  that  also  shall  he  (or  it)  reap.’’  It  is 
through  pain  that  wilful  men  have  to  learn  to 
follow  those  laws  of  life  which  bring  happiness 
only  to  the  obedient.  And  in  that  pain  we 
must  discover  the  healing  presence  of  Christ. 

The  drawing  to  Christ  which  is  of  real 
worth  must  be  internal.  On  His  part  the  at¬ 
traction  is  ever  exercised.  On  the  part  of  man 
there  must  be  cooperation  with  and  surrender 
to  Him.  It  is  no  reflection  upon  His  power 
that  men  withhold  from  Him  their  confidence. 
Jesus  Christ  will  never  compel  men  to  love  and 
serve  Him  and  to  obey  His  laws.  Moral  and 
spiritual  obedience  must  always  be  free.  It  is 
no  reflection  upon  the  attractive  power  of  the 
sun  that  certain  slum  dwellers  and  others  elect 
to  hide  themselves  from  its  rays  and  to  immure 
themselves  in  their  own  squalid  habitations. 
And  if  men  will  not  yield  to  the  attraction  of 
Christ,  let  Him  not  be  blamed :  the  fault  must 


168  REGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD 


be  placed  to  the  account  of  human  ignorance 
or  perversity. — But  yielded  to,  willingly  or  not, 
the  action  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  the  world  has 
been  a  victorious  action.  He  was  lifted  up, 
and  both  in  the  broader  and  in  the  narrower 
sense  He  has  “  drawn  all  men  ”  unto  Him. 

The  death  of  Jesus  on  the  Cross  was  an 
event  which  in  the  esteem  of  His  contempora¬ 
ries  has  no  extraordinary  significance.  It  was 
hurriedly  planned  and  hurriedly  executed.  All 
men  in  their  hearts  must  have  known  that  it 
was  an  act  of  supreme  injustice,  but  who  could 
have  imagined  that  its  consequences  would  be 
Eternal  and  that  from  that  hour  humanity 
would  begin  to  date  a  new  epoch?  Roman 
historians  give  it  no  place.  The  death  itself 
seemed  to  be  a  mere  incident.  The  manner  of 
the  death — crucifixion — would  render  it  still 
more  improbable  that  the  world  would  ever  be 
regenerated  by  its  means.  So  far  from  “  draw¬ 
ing  ”  all  men  unto  Him,  the  Cross  would  more 
likely  repel  men  from  Him.  For  the  Cross 
was  an  instrument  of  execution  reserved 
chiefly  for  slaves  and  criminals.  This  infelix 
arbor,  this  crux  damnata,  this  servile  suppli- 
cium,  as  the  Romans  variously  called  the  Cross: 
how  could  it  ever  become  the  symbol  of  all  that 
is  dearest  and  noblest  and  most  Divine  in  the 
world?  How  could  He,  who  in  the  year  29 


KEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  169 


of  our  epoch,  hung  transfixed  to  the  horrible 
gallows,  draw  all  men  unto  Him  by  means 
of  that  very  lifting  up?  Yet  it  is  a  simple  fact 
that  the  Cross  of  Christ  has  been  the  greatest 
redemptive  factor  in  the  life  of  humanity. 
Nothing  in  the  world  can  compare  with  its 
magnetic  power.  Until  the  weight  of  His 
sacred  body  hung  upon  the  infamous  wood, 
the  Cross  had  no  association  with  anything 
save  dishonour  and  defeat.  But  since  He 
touched  it,  it  has  become  a  sign  of  honour,  of 
authority  and  of  force.  The  early  Church 
gloried  in  ifi  and  the  Church  of  God  will  never 
cease  to  glory  in  it. 

The  Cross  is  the  moral  centre  of  Chris¬ 
tianity.  It  is  the  living  magnet  which  retains 
the  Church  in  true  relation  to  her  Lord. 
Never  an  hour  but  in  some  corner  of  the  globe 
Christians  meet  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
the  Cross  in  the  solemn  act  of  the  Holy  Com¬ 
munion.  This  phenomenon  is  not  due  to  the 
imagination  or  to  the  piety  of  Christian  dev¬ 
otees.  The  power  of  attraction  is  not  in 
themselves  but  in  the  Cross.  Many  who  do 
not  attempt  to  explain  its  mystery  are  com¬ 
pelled  to  yield  to  its  attraction,  and  even 
amongst  those  who  profess  no  love  for 
Jesus  Christ  there  is  a  certain  awe  and  re¬ 
spect  for  the  Cross  of  Christ.  The  word 


170  KEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD 


of  Jesus  has  been  fulfilled.  He  has  drawn 
all  men  unto  Him.  .  .  .  What  changes 

have  been  effected  in  human  life  as  the 
result  of  that  uplifting?  We  may  say  gener¬ 
ally  that  Jesus  Christ  by  His  death  has  changed 
the  face  of  the  world  ^.vternally,  and  the  life 
of  all  true  believers  mternally.  j 

I.  There  has  been  and  is  an  external  at¬ 
traction.  Jesus  Christ  has  drawn  men  to 
Himself  from  two  things  which  prevailed  in 
His  day,  viz.:  idolatry  and  inhumanity. 

(a)  Idolatry.  At  the  hour  when  Jesus  as¬ 
cended  Mount  Calvary  the  civilized  world  was 
a  vast  temple  of  idols.  “  All  was  God  except 
God.^^  In  Athens,  the  capital  of  the  world's 
art,  philosophy,  poetry  and  drama,  idolatry 
had  attained  to  such  colossal  dimensions  that 
the  satirist  declared  it  was  easier  to  find  a 
God  than  a  man.”  Everywhere  temples 
reared  their  heads.  Everywhere  gods  abounded. 
At  Rome,  the  world's  political  capital,  the  gods 
rivalled  those  of  Greece  and  they  included 
finally  the  Emperors  before  whose  statues  a 
thin  thread  of  blue  censer  smoke  ascended. 
With  the  exception  of  one  small  nation  the  en¬ 
tire  world  was  polytheistic.  Persians  adored 
the  sun  as  the  symbol  of  the  Divinity.  Egyptians 
paid  homage  to  cat  and  crocodile.  Elsewhere 
the  generative  forces  of  nature  portrayed  in 


EEGENEEATOE  OF  THE  WOELD  171 


disgusting  physical  forms  were  worshipped, 
while  the  more  refined  and  speculative  wor¬ 
shipped  vague  principles  ”  of  life  and  heat 
and  motion.  Men  almost  everywhere  offered 
to  the  creature  or  to  nebulous  principles,  the 
homage  due  to  the  living  and  Eternal  God. 
To  perverted  worship  was  joined  corrupt  man¬ 
ners.  The  very  gods  themselves  were  in¬ 
vested  with  the  lowest  of  human  vices.  They 
were  gluttons  and  drunkards  and  filled  with 
lust.  The  worship  of  Artemis  entailed  upon 
the  priestesses  who  served  in  her  temples  the 
sacrifice  of  their  virtue.  Prostitution  became 
a  religious  act.  Licentiousness  of  the  worst 
kind  was  practiced  as  part  of  the  religious 
“  mysteries,''  as  indeed  it  is  at  this  day  in 
India.  Roman  Emperors  whose  lives  upon 
earth  had  been  openly  corrupt,  were  deified, 
and  at  death  became  objects  of  veneration. 
Such  was  the  state  of  the  world  religiously  at 
the  death  of  Christ.  The  peoples  were  decay¬ 
ing  through  rotting  religions.  In  the  midst  of 
this  universal  corruption  the  Cross  of  Christ 
was  erected.  Seven  weeks  later  twelve  men 
commenced  to  preach  to  the  world  Christ, 
crucified  and  risen,  as  the  Lord  of  mankind. 
Jews  were  scandalized.  Greeks  and  Romans 
were  amused.  But  the  apostles  preached  in  the 
teeth  of  all  opposition.  They  were  rnen  with- 


172  KEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD 


out  wealth,  prestige  or  arms.  They  were  un« 
travelled  and  inexperienced.  The  popular 
religions  of  the  day  and  the  chief  political 
power  of  the  day  were  both  arrayed  against 
them.  Undaunted,  they  proclaimed  Christ 
and  the  idols  commenced  to  fall.  To  the 
priestly  deification  of  lust  they  opposed  the 
Cross  with  its  terrible  spectacle  of  the  holy 
Son  of  God  suffering  for  human  sin.  To  the 
multitude  of  gods  they  opposed  the  One  living 
and  true  God  become  Incarnate  in  Jesus 
Christ.  And  the  Cross  triumphed.  For 
three  centuries  the  war  between  Christ  and 
paganism  endured  and  then  the  truth  con¬ 
quered.  The  symbol  of  victory  flashed  every¬ 
where.  Since  that  time  wherever  the  Cross 
has  been  uplifted  the  idols  have  fallen.  Even 
nations  that  do  not  definitely  own  the  sway 
of  the  Saviour  have  been  compelled  to  modify 
their  manners.  Human  sacrifices,  suttee,  can¬ 
nibalism  and  other  horrors  which  formerly 
obtained  religious  sanctions  are  now  univer¬ 
sally  reprobated.  It  will  not  do  to  attribute  the 
passing  of  these  nightmares  to  the  march  of 
civilization.  Civilization,  in  its  best  form,  is 
the  product  of  the  Christian  spirit.  We  are 
reaping  in  that  humanity  which  has  abolished 
the  ancient  abominations,  the  fruit  of  that  seed 
which  Christ  has  sown  in  the  hearts  of  good 


REGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  173 


men  during  the  centuries.  To  the  shame  of 
our  generation,  it  claims  this  harvest  as  its 
own,  while  it  seeks  to  obliterate  from  the  page 
of  history  the  record  of  the  action  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  preparing  for  us  the  privileges  into 
which  so  easily  we  enter.  It  is  the  Cross  alone 
which  has  triumphed  over  idolatry. 

{h)  A  second  thing  over  which  the  Cross 
has  triumphed  is  inhumanity.  Inhumanity  is 
the  necessary  accompaniment  of  idolatry, 
whatever  be  the  form  idolatry  assumes  in 
ancient  or  modern  life,  amongst  savages  or  the 
civilized.  Where  men  reject  the  true  God 
they  soon  come  to  despise  their  fellows.  The 
Roman  and  Greek  gods  were  the  creations  of 
man's  mind.  Many  of  them  had  sprung  from 
the  earth.  As  gods,  so  men.  It  followed  as 
the  result  of  their  materialistic  beliefs  that 
neither  Greeks  nor  Romans  believed  in  the 
Divine  origin  of  man.  Man  as  man  was  not 
respected.  Power  and  genius  alone  were  wor¬ 
shipped.  Ordinary  men  were  ignored  or 
scorned.  The  plebeian  was  merely  animated 
dirt.”  The  pagan  conception  of  man  is  made 
clear  to  us  by  a  consideration  of  four  things — 
its  treatment  of  children  and  women  and  its 
conception  of  slavery  and  war. 

(1)  Its  treatment  of  children.  We  are  left 
in  no  sort  of  doubt  as  to  the  position  which 


174  EEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WOKLD 


children  occupied  in  Rome  or  Greece.  Contem¬ 
porary  writers  have  left  in  permanent  form  a 
photograph  of  the  child  as  pagan  life  conceived 
it.  In  Rome  children  had  no  real  rights. 
The  father  was  the  proprietor  of  the  family, 
and  his  offspring  belonged  to  him  in  the 
absolute  sense.  If  he  did  not  care  to  rear  an 
unpromising  infant,  a  law  authorized  him  to 
terminate  its  career.  ‘‘  In  his  father^s  house 
the  adult  son  of  a  Roman  citizen  was  a  mere 
thing  confounded  by  the  laws  with  the  move¬ 
ables,  the  cattle  and  the  slaves,  whom  the 
capricious  master  might  alienate  or  destroy 
without  being  responsible  to  any  earthly 
tribunal.” '  Amongst  the  Greeks  the  public 
castigation  of  children  before  altars  was  per¬ 
mitted  to  the  extent  of  blood  shedding  and 
even  death.  Such  philosophers  as  Plato  and 
Aristotle  urged  parents  to  repudiate  their  off¬ 
spring  if  they  found  their  support  to  be  too 
heavy  a  burden,  or  if  the  children  betrayed 
any  weakness  which  threatened  to  be  an  in¬ 
cubus  upon  the  State.  The  State  w^as  every¬ 
thing;  the  individual  nothing.  Weakness  was 
considered  as  a  crime.  For  the  afflicted  child 
there  was  no  hospital  nor  institution  of  any 
sort  in  which  it  might  find  asylum.  It  was 
at  the  mercy  of  a  heartless  State.  Those 
^  Gibbon,  “  Decline  and  ^all.” 


EEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  175 


revolutionaries  of  our  time  who  would  make 
an  atheistic  State  the  supreme  arbiter  of  hu¬ 
man  destiny  might  receive  some  illumination 
through  a  study  of  ancient  history. 

(2)  Where  children  are  thus  treated  we  may 
naturally  expect  to  find  a  low  status  of  woman. 
The  pagan  world  at  the  time  of  Christ  reveals 
an  astonishing  spectacle.  When  the  “  glories 
of  the  Roman  matron  ”  have  been  sung,  and 
the  clever  women  of  the  ancient  world  shown 
in  free  intercourse  with  society,  and  a  number 
of  noble  ladies,  the  charm  of  that  world,  passed 
across  the  stage,  the  fact  remains  that  for  the 
majority  the  lot  of  woman  was  ignominious. 
In  Greece,  enclosed  within  her  father’s  house, 
the  maiden  was  subject  absolutely  to  her 
father’s  will.  If  she  longed  for  a  larger  life 
and  desired  a  public  career,  a  terrible  price  was 
demanded  of  her;  often  not  less  than  the  sacri¬ 
fice  of  her  chastity.  In  Rome,  the  girl  was 
part  of  the  furniture  of  the  father’s  home — to 
be  disposed  of  by  him  in  the  same  way  that  he 
would  order  his  household  effects.  If  the 
father  died,  the  maiden  became  the  chattel  of 
the  responsible  male  head  of  the  household. 
When  the  maiden  became  a  wife  she  was  a 
chattel  simply  transferred  from  a  father  or  a 
guardian  to  a  husband;  but  she  remained  a 
chattel  still.  What  wonder  that  woman’s 


176  KEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD 


nature  thus  outraged  and  suppressed  took  its 
revenge !  Intrigue,  abandonment  and  in¬ 
fidelity  were  woman’s  retaliation  for  man’s 
treatment  of  her. 

(3)  If  those  who  were  bound  to  men  by  ties 
of  blood  were  thus  treated  what  should  we  ex¬ 
pect  to  be  the  condition  of  slaves?  Gibbon 
estimates  the  number  of  slaves  within  the 
Roman  Empire  in  the  time  of  Claudius  to  be 
about  sixty  millions.  They  were  worth,  in  the 
public  market-place,  from  about  five  shillings 
tO'  fifteen  pounds  sterling.  Slavery  was  not 
an  accidental  part  of  Roman  life:  it  had  be¬ 
come  an  essential  thing.  Roman  statesmen 
and  orators  defended  it.  It  was  not  con¬ 
sidered  to  be  a  necessary  evil  but  a  positive 
good.  The  slaves  had  no  legal  rights.  The 
veil  of  modesty  was  ruthlessly  torn  from  men 
and  women  alike.  They  were  de-humanized 
as  much  as  possible.  When  they  were  put  up 
for  public  sale  the  clothing  was  removed  from 
their  bodies.  In  all  the  shame  of  nudity  they 
were  compelled  to  stand,  a  gazing  stock  for  the 
city.  In  the  entertainment  of  children  the 
slaves  were  requisitioned  and  often  compelled 
to  play  the  part  of  animals.  Frequently  they 
bore  some  fetter  while  upon  forehead  or 
breast  or  arm  the  fatal  brand  of  servitude  pro¬ 
claimed  to  all  their  humiliation.  At  the  entire 


BEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  177 


mercy  of  their  owners  they  could  not  appeal  to 
any  court  for  redress  of  injury.  They  were 
forbidden  to  defend  themselves  in  the  courts. 
Thousands  of  them  were  specially  trained  for 
fighting  in  the  circus  against  men  who,  well 
armed,  were  certain  to  encompass  their  death. 
And  all  this  was  the  rule  at  Rome — capital  of 
the  civilized  world.  All  was  done  in  the  name 
of  civilization. 

(4)  If,  in  normal  conditions,  these  abomina¬ 
tions  prevailed,  it  is  easy  to  comprehend  the 
depth  of  degradation  into  which  men  sank  in 
time  of  war  when  every  base  and  bloody  pas¬ 
sion  was  unchained.  War,  in  our  time,  with 
its  “  humanities,”  its  Red  Cross  and  its  codes 
of  “  honour  ”  is  the  grimmest  of  tragedies,  the 
most  horrible  of  spectacles.  But  then  there 
was  not  even  the  pretence  of  a  code  of  honour 
and  there  were  no  “  humanities.”  The  main 
object  of  war  was  the  annihilation  of  the 
enemy  to  the  accompaniment  of  brutality  and 
torture.  The  victors  did  not  burden  their 
regiments  with  a  host  of  prisoners  needing 
food  and  attention.  When  they  did  reserve 
captured  prisoners  of  war  it  was  more  often 
than  not  for  the  more  horrible  death  of  the 
arena.  In  painting  the  picture  in  these  sombre 
colours  it  is  not  forgotten  that  there  was  much 
nobility  and  mercy  in  the  old  Pagan  world. 


178  REGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD 


That  world  was  not  a  simple  festering  mass  of 
corruption  utterly  unrelieved  by  a  single  ray 
of  beauty.  What  has  to  be  remembered,  how¬ 
ever,  is,  that  when  the  very  best  has  been  said 
of  that  time,  the  picture  we  have  drawn  from 
competent  historians  remains  unchallenged. 
Whatever  of  good  there  was  does  not  alter  the 
fact  that  these  evils  flourished,  not  as  ad¬ 
mitted  discords  in  the  music  of  life  but  as  part 
of  the  music  itself  as  it  was  understood.* — In 
the  midst  of  this  ancient  life,  so  socially  in¬ 
complete,  and  in  parts  cruel,  the  Cross  of 
Christ  was  raised  on  high.  Seven  weeks 
later,  twelve  men  went  forth  to  proclaim 
Christ  as  the  Lord  of  all  life.  Commencing 
at  Jerusalem  they  gradually  spread  out  until 
at  length  the  Capital  of  the  Empire  was  evan¬ 
gelized.  To  the  unnatural  treatment  of  child 
life  they  opposed  the  gentleness  and  love  of 
Jesus  for  children.  They  told  how  He  had  laid 
His  hands  upon  their  heads  and  blessed  them, 
and  how  He  had  made  the  child  the  model  of 
the  true  life.  To  their  low  thought  of  woman, 
they  opposed  the  friendship  of  Jesus  for 
women  equally  with  men  and  showed  how  He 
had  admitted  to  His  intimacy  even  the  socially 
disfranchised  and  the  morally  debased  in  order 
to  redeem  and  to  elevate  them.  To  the 
abomination  of  slavery  they  opposed  the  act  of 


REGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  179 


the  Lord  of  all  voluntarily  suffering  the  death 
of  a  slave  in  order  to  purchase  liberty  for  every 
human  soul.  And  they  repeated  His  word 
“  One  is  your  master  and  all  ye  are  brethren.” 
To  the  horrors  of  war  they  opposed  the  gospel 
of  peace  and  reconciliation  by  the  Cross,  as  the 
surest  way  to  end  forever  those  feelings  of 
hatred  which  end  in  violent  barbaric  explo¬ 
sions. 

Through  the  preaching  of  the  Cross  men  of 
all  ranks  in  life  and  of  all  races  became  broth¬ 
ers  in  a  new  and  Divine  family.  Everywhere 
human  life  received  a  new  sanctity.  Chil¬ 
dren  became  the  objects  of  an  unheard-of 
solicitude.  Women  were  restored  to  their 
proper  place  as  the  comrades  of  men  in  the 
highest  relationships  and  offices:  the  weak  and 
crippled  were  tended  with  a  new  care;  injuries 
were  forgiven  in  place  of  being  revenged ;  men 
were  loved  as  men  and  as  brothers  in  Christ. 
The  Cross  conquered.  Wherever  its  shadow 
fell,  the  hateful  things  of  human  life  fell 
away.  Not  in  a  moment  was  this  done,  but  it 
was  done.  The  work  of  penetration  has 
always  depended  upon  the  degree  of  coopera¬ 
tion  which  man  offers  to  his  God.  Wherever 
this  cooperation  has  been  given  child  life  has 
been  respected,  woman  elevated,  slavery  abol¬ 
ished  and  wars  ended.  Wherever  this  cch 


180  KEGENERATOR  OP  THE  WORLD 


operation  has  been  refused  or  but  partially 
rendered,  there  the  old  vices  have  flourished 
in  greater  or  lesser  degree.  No  one  pre¬ 
tends  that  the  programme  of  Christ  has  yet 
been  fully  accomplished.  But  this  must  not 
blind  us  to  the  fact  of  the  miracle  that 
has  already  been  ■wrought  wherever  the 
Evangel  has  worked  as  leaven.  There  are 
dark  and  cruel  places  still  flourishing  even 
in  Christendom.  Not  yet  have  children  come 
fully  unto  their  own,  not  yet  are  all  the 
slaves  free.  And  wars  still  threaten  us,  al¬ 
though  the  best  conscience  of  the  world 
is  earnestly  set  against  them.  This  is  not  to 
proclaim  the  ineffectiveness  of  the  Gospel;  it 
is  rather  an  indictment  of  the  moral  weakness 
and  cowardice  and  selfishness  of  men  for  their 
refusal  to  adopt  the  only  means  of  securing 
their  complete  emancipation  from  all  the  evils 
of  life.  For  the  Cross  still  has  its  enemies  as 
in  the  early  days  of  the  Church.  Atheism, 
materialism  and  the  idolatry  of  worldliness  are 
arrayed  against  it.  They  fear  its  influence. 
But  history  will  repeat  itself  and  complete  the 
story  which  has  been  but  partly  written. 
Jesus  Christ  who  has  hitherto'  regenerated  that 
world  which  owns  His  sway,  must  complete 
His  work  until  the  entire  earth  is  created  anew. 
Light  must  conquer  darkness.  Holiness  must 


EEGENEKATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  181 


master  vice.  Life  must  banish  death.  The  day 
must  dawn  when  all  the  shadows  shall  depart 
from  the  life  of  man  and  the  whole  world  be 
bathed  in  the  healing  light  of  God. 

II.  It  is  an  immense  task  to  have  accom¬ 
plished — this  correction  of  the  social  vices  and 
this  change  in  life’s  outlook,  but  the  main  thing 
Jesus  Christ  purposes  is  not  simply  the  reform 
of  the  world’s  behaviour,  but  the  permanent 
cure  of  its  heart.  There  is  no  guarantee  that 
reformed  manners  will  endure,  unless  the  cause 
of  human  evil  is  attacked  and  cured.  The 
Cross,  therefore,  if  it  is  really  to  triumph  over 
evil,  must  be  able  to  influence  the  mainspring 
of  human  life.  It  must  triumph  internally  as 
well  as  externally.  This  always  has  been  its 
real  victory.  What  is  the  cause  of  all  the  in¬ 
felicity  and  heartlessness  which  have  invaded 
our  world  ?  Are  there  many  roots,  or  is  there 
but  one  main  root  from  which  have  sprung  the 
poisonous  fruits  that  envenom  human  life? 
Many  secondary  causes  may  be  alleged,  but 
there  is  one  primary  cause  which  is  the  source 
of  all  the  rest.  Selfishness,  some  call  it,  but 
the  Bible  in  uttering  the  single  word  “  sin  ” 
brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  awful  secret  of 
all  that  oppresses  mankind.  Men  have 
wrangled  over  the  term  “  sin,”  now  denying 
the  reality  of  the  thing  itself,  now  explaining 


182  EEGENERATOK  OF  THE  WORLD 


it  in  theological,  or  philosophical  or  psycho¬ 
logical  terminology.  At  the  Cross  of  Christ 
this  evil  thing  is  demonstrated  at  work  in  com¬ 
plete  action.  We  behold  it  there  unmasked 
and  unlabelled,  but  plainly  discernible  for  what 
it  is.  The  Cross  reveals  the  real  nature  of  sin. 
It  is  not  verbally  defined,  but  what  is  far  more 
terrible  and  striking,  its  nature  and  action  are 
demonstrated.  There,  upon  the  Cross,  trans¬ 
fixed  to  its  wood,  is  the  Divine  Lord.  For 
three  and  thirty  years  in  His  incarnate  life, 
He  has  lived  with  men,  sharing  their  poverty, 
healing  their  sick,  restoring  the  fallen  to  the 
ways  of  virtue,  filling  with  love  and  hope 
hearts  that  had  become  desolate  and  hardened, 
raising  the  dead,  blessing  children  and  every¬ 
where  preaching  the  good  news  of  Salvation. 
His  life  has  been  one  long  benediction.  Sinful 
and  sorrowful  people  were  made  whole  and 
filled  with  joy  when  He  met  them.  In  Him¬ 
self  He  has  lived  the  perfect  life.  Tempted  in 
all  points  as  we  are.  He  has  never  yielded  to 
evil.  He  came  to  reveal  the  Father  God  to 
mankind.  His  ‘‘  mighty  works  remain  wit¬ 
nesses  to  His  claim  that  He  is  the  Saviour  of 
the  world.  And  what  is  His  fate?  He  becomes 
a  victim  of  human  evil,  voluntarily  submitting 
Himself  to  the  sacrifice  of  life  itself.  He 
might  easily  resist  this  attack,  but  He  hears  the 


REGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  183 


Sin  of  the  world  so  that  man  shall  see  what  sin 
is  and  voluntarily  forsake  it. — Nearly  all  the 
types  of  human  evil  are  represented  in  the  ter¬ 
rible  drama  of  the  Cross.  Each  is  to  have  a 
hand  in  this  fearful  demonstration.  Hypocrisy 
is  represented  in  the  chief  priests  and  scribes. 
Uncleanness  in  Herod.  Lying  in  the  false  wit¬ 
nesses.  Injustice  in  Pontius  Pilate.  Treach¬ 
ery  in  Judas  Iscariot.  Cruelty  in  the  soldiers. 
Theft  in  the  gamblers  at  the  foot  of  the  cross. 
All  types  of  evil  are  thus  gathered  against  the 
Lord  and  His  Christ,  and  all  the  types  are 
but  modes  of  one  underlying  principle — Sin. 
See  then  what  sin  does  to  the  perfect  Christ — 
to  Him  who  has  wrought  nothing  but  good  for 
mankind.  It  blasphemes  Him,  scourges  Him, 
spits  in  His  face,  mocks  Him,  lies  about  Him, 
makes  sport  of  His  sorrow  and  suffering,  and 
finally  drives  Him  from  the  earth. — That  is 
what  sin  is  capable  of  doing  to  the  Highest,  the 
Best.  And  in  doing  this  it  demonstrates  its 
own  nature.  The  tragedy  of  Good  Friday  was 
not  a  passing  incident  in  the  world’s  history:  it 
was  a  temporal  demonstration  at  a  given  point 
of  the  perpetual  outrage  which  on  the  part  of 
man  is  always  being  directed  against  God. 
What  men  did  to  Jesus  on  Good  Friday  in  the 
physical  realm,  mankind  does  to  God  to-day  in 
the  moral  realm  by  its  sin. — It  wounds  Him 


184  KEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD 


and  seeks  to  be  rid  of  Him.  All  His  goodness 
to  it  goes  for  nothing.  God  is  simply  unwel¬ 
come  and  His  law  regarded  as  oppressive.  No 
academic  account  of  sin  can  succeed  in  bring¬ 
ing  its  meaning  home  to  us  like  this  demon¬ 
stration  of  its  virulence  in  the  Cross  of  Christ. 
To  make  mankind  see  what  it  is,  is  the  first 
part  of  the  triumph  of  the  Cross. 

A  second  thing  the  Cross  does  is  to  reveal 
what  God  thinks  about  sin  and  what  His  holi¬ 
ness  demands  should  be  done  with  it.  It  is 
clear  that  sin,  the  aim  of  which  is  to  challenge 
the  Eternal  law,  cannot  pass  without  some  sign 
of  displeasure  on  the  part  of  the  Eternal  Good¬ 
ness.  A  silent  God  would  encourage  a  sinning 
world.  When  we  examine  history,  we  discover 
that  God  has  remarked  upon  sin  in  ways  that 
are  unmistakable.  In  many  a  calamity, 
through  many  a  pain,  in  personal  remorse,  in 
national  disasters,  in  international  conflicts  and 
in  a  thousand  other  ways  God  has  taught  men 
that  he  who  sins  against  him  hurts  his  own 
soul  ”  and  that  the  wages  of  sin  is  death.’’ 
But  more  than  this  was  needed.  The  world 
required  one  great  advertisement  in  concrete 
and  convincing  form  of  the  terrible  conse¬ 
quences  of  sin.  That  advertisement  zvas  given 
in  the  Cross  of  Christ,  and  it  remains  a  perma¬ 
nent  memory  of  mankind.  If  the  Cross,  as 


KEGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  185 


we  have  seen,  reveals  the  venom  of  Sin  to¬ 
ward  God,  it  also  shows  us  what  ravages  it 
works  upon  man.  As  Son  of  man  Christ 
hangs  upon  the  Cross.  He  represents  Man  as 
truly  as  He  represents  God.  In  His  dying  we 
behold  Man — the  victim  of  sin.  We  see  the 
sinner  caught  at  length  in  his  own  devices.  We 
see  him  brought  under  the  judgment  of  God. 
Jesus,  in  the  immensity  of  His  charity,  permits 
us  to  see  in  His  own  body  this  public  spectacle 
of  what  sin  does  for  every  individual.  Let  us 
follow  the  steps  of  His  via  Dolorosa.  First, 
sin  betrays  its  victim,  impressing  upon  his  lips 
the  Judas  kiss.  Jesus,  prey  to  the  perfidy  of 
a  false-hearted  disciple,  shows  us  what  the 
traitor  in  our  hearts  will  yet  do  for  us  unless, 
by  God’s  mercy,  he  is  transformed.  Whatever 
form  evil  assumes,  we  may  be  morally  certain 
that  one  day  we  shall  be  betrayed  by  it.  Vanity 
will  turn  upon  us  and  mock  us.  Lust  will  hand 
over  to  our  tormentors  the  members  which 
have  willingly  obeyed  its  behests.  Selfishness 
will  leave  us  with  a  desolate  heart.  Sin  be¬ 
trays.  This  is  the  commencement  of  sorrows. 
It  goes  on  to  scourge  us,  to  make  sport  of  us, 
to  drive  us  from  place  to  place  bound  dupes  of 
its  tyranny,  to  weigh  us  down  with  a  cross,  to 
put  us  to  cruel  pain,  to  torment  us  with  thirst, 
to  drive  us  into  the  darkness  of  despair,  and 


186  EEGENEEATOR  OF  THE  WOELD  ' 

finally  to  engulf  us  in  death.  That  terrible 
procession  of  pains  and  sorrows  endured  by 
Jesus  constitutes  the  most  penetrating  adver¬ 
tisement  of  the  dread  consequences  of  sin. 
Every  item  in  that  list  has  its  moral  counter¬ 
part  in  the  souls  of  sinners  abandoned  to  evil. 
These  pains  are  the  natural  consequences  of 
sin:  none  the  less  they  are  the  judgment  of 
God  upon  it.  In  that  willing,  Divine  victim  of 
the  Cross  we  may  read  God’s  estimate  of  the 
natural  history  of  sin.” 

“To  know  thoroughly  the  disease  is  half  the 
cure.”  The  Cross  represents  a  triumph  by  re¬ 
vealing  to  mankind  the  inner  nature  of  sin  and 
its  consequences  for  God  and  man.  But  it  is 
more  than  a  revelation.  It  is  a  real  instrument 
of  victory.  It  was  a  personal  victory  for  Jesus 
in  that,  bearing  sin  even  unto  death.  He  rose 
again  in  triumph,  thus  proving  that  “  death  no 
more  hath  dominion  over  him.”  It  was 
mainly,  however,  a  representative  victory.  In 
Him  man  recovered  himself.  Christ  conquered 
on  man’s  behalf.  The  condition  of  any  per¬ 
son’s  victory  over  sin  is  that  he  shall  be 
possessed  with  the  mind  of  Christ  and  so  be 
vitally  related  to  Him  who  represented  all  men. 
That  condition  is,  in  the  New  Testament, 
termed  “  belief.”  It  is  a  simple  fact  of  experi¬ 
ence  that  persons  who  are  thus  “  one  ”  with 


REGENERATOR  OF  THE  WORLD  187 

Christ  become  regenerated  and  so  free  from 
the  dominion  of  sin.  The  centre  of  life  is 
changed.  The  root  of  evil  is  attacked  and 
destroyed.  Men  in  reality  become  “  new 
creatures  in  Christ.’’  In  all  who  are  “  one  ” 
with  Him,  the  Saviour  repeats  His  own  vic¬ 
tory  over  sin.  This  experience  of  redemption 
is  offered  to  all  the  world,  but  it  can  never  be 
appreciated  by  self-satisfied  persons  who  re¬ 
gard  themselves  as  '‘not  like  other  men”:  it 
is  for  sinners  who  are  oppressed  by  Sin  and 
who  ardently  long  to  be  free  from  its  bondage. 

The  Cross  has  lost  none  of  its  magnetic 
power.  It  "  draws  ”  still.  But  as  between  a 
magnet  and  a  needle  there  must  be  a  natural 
affinity  which  makes  call  and  response  a  reality, 
so  between  the  Cross  and  the  sinner  there  must 
also  be  affinity.  This  affinity  is  composed  of 
desire,  penitence,  humility  and  faith.  With¬ 
out  these,  the  Cross  "  draws  ”  in  vain.  To  the 
Divine  "  I  will  draw  ”  it  is  necessary  that  man 
respond  "  I  will  come.”  For  in  virtue  of  our 
nature,  the  power  to  turn  to  God,  or  to  refuse 
Him  lies  in  the  human  will.  When  that  will 
responds,  then  the  regenerator  of  the  world  is 
known  in  experience  as  the  regenerator  of  the 
individual  soul. 


XII 


THE  EVIDENCE  OP  CHRISTIAN 
EXPERIENCE 


The  great  shaking  to  which  the  world 
has  been  subjected  during  the  last 
few  years  has  left  many  things,  that 
were  once  thought  to  be  settled,  quite  insecure. 
Political  institutions,  social  conventions,  and 
many  personal  relations  have  been  rudely  dis¬ 
turbed.  And  religion  has  not  escaped.  Men 
have  been  compelled  to  overhaul  tlieir  beliefs, 
and  to  demand  whether  or  not  they  are  equal 
to  the  new  and  strange  demands  made  upon 
them.  We  ought  not  to  be  troubled  about 
this:  we  should  rather  rejoice  in  it.  When 
foundations  are  challenged,  it  is  well  to  ex¬ 
amine  them.  If  the  challenge  be  unwarranted, 
so  much  the  better;  if  it  be  justified,  wisdom 
demands  that  security  should  be  established  im¬ 
mediately. 

Unmistakably  the  Christian  faith  has  been 
challenged  by  its  enemies,  both  on  speculative 
and  practical  grounds.  Its  doctrine  of  God  is 
said  tO'  be  obviously  out  of  relation  with  the 

i88 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE 


189 


facts  of  life  as  the  late  war  has  disclosed  them, 
while  it  is  declared  to  have  broken  down  as  a 
practical  force  in  the  life  of  man.  And  our 
answer  must  be,  with  Mr.  Chesterton,  that 

Christianity  has  not  been  tried  and  found 
wanting:  it  has  been  found  difficult  and  not 
tried. Some  private  theologies  have  un¬ 
doubtedly  been  roughly  shaken  in  the  world 
tempest,  but  the  doctrine  of  God  as  disclosed 
y)  us  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  has  not  been 
in  the  remotest  way  affected.  God  has  not 
ceased  to  be  Father  because  some  members  of 
His  family,  in  their  abuse  of  liberty,  have  de¬ 
liberately  run  amok  with  open  knife  to  wound 
their  brothers  and  sisters.  A  moral  force  for 
righteousness  does  not  fail  when  men  repudiate 
it  and  accept  another  and  alien  law  of  life. 
For  moral  power  works  morally  and  not  with 
material  means  to  enforce  it.  Christianity  as 
a  system  is  not  discredited  because  men  have 
got  into  trouble  through  rejecting  it:  it  is 
rather  the  other  way  about. 

But  one  thing  remains  undisturbed,  un¬ 
shaken,  untouched,  amidst  all  the  wreckage  of 
life — it  is  the  reality  of  Christian  experience. 
People  who  have  had  experience  of  God’s  won¬ 
derful  mercy  and  grace  do  not  and  cannot 
doubt  that  because  of  any  happening  in  the 
outer  world.  They  who  have  drunk  deeply 


190 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE 


of  domestic  happiness  do  not  doubt  the  reality 
of  their  experience  when  they  encounter  in 
life  the  horrible  fireside  tragedies  which  make 
one  sick  with  shame.  Experience  of  the  good, 
the  beautiful,  and  the  true  can  never  be  dis¬ 
counted  by  the  appearance  of  the  bad,  the  ugly, 
and  the  false  elsewhere.  And  such  positive 
experience  is  evidence  of  a  high  order  that 
man  can  and  should  delight  in  the  good,  the 
beautiful,  and  the  true.  Exactly  thus  is  it 
with  Christian  experience.  It  has  a  strong 
evidential  value.  It  witnesses  to  the  reality  of 
a  Divine  force  in  man’s  life,  and  in  doing  so 
calls  all  men  and  women  to  share  in  that  real¬ 
ity.  It  cries  out  to  the  whole  world :  “  Behold 
me.  .  .  .  God  is  at  work  within  me. 
.  .  .  He  is  doing  great  things  for  me. 
.  .  .  Although  He  is  hidden,  yet  His  work 

is  manifest — the  effect  witnesses  to  the  Cause. 
.  .  .  Acknowledge  this  to  be  the  work  of 

God,  and  submit  yourselves  to  that  same  work¬ 
ing,  then  you  also  shall  rejoice  in  this  like 
experience.” 

I  am  assuming,  of  course,  that  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  a  definite  Christian  experience  which 
per  se  resolves  itself  into  invincible  evidence 
on  behalf  of  the  grace  of  God.  Is  such  an  as¬ 
sumption  justified?  Without  doubt,  unless  it 
be  true  that  we  are  living  in  the  midst  of  a 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE  191 


vast  illusion,  or  that  mankind  be  afflicted  with 
incurable  insanity.  The  specific  Christian  ex¬ 
perience  is  this — that  man,  through  the  reve¬ 
lation  brought  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  really 
knows  ”  God  in  a  moral  sense ;  that  he  knows 
who  God  is,  what  He  thinks  about  us,  and  what 
He  sacrifices  for  us.  Further,  that  through 
surrender  to  Him  and  confidence  in  Him,  the 
soul  actually  experiences  a  cleansing  from  its 
sins,  a  reinforcement  of  Divine  power  for  the 
purposes  of  life,  a  new  spirit  of  love  toward 
mankind,  and  a  new  and  deep  joy  in  God. 
This  is  a  specific  Christian  experience,  related 
entirely  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  certain  as  any¬ 
thing  in  this  world  can  be.  It  is  not  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  one  age,  nor  of  one  type  of  mind, 
nor  of  one  climate.  It  is  the  experience  of 
every  age  from  the  time  of  Christ  onwards,  of 
every  type  of  mind  and  of  every  climate. 

An  Apostle  of  the  first  century  writes: 
“  We  know  that  we  have  passed  from  death 
unto  life.”  ‘‘  We  know  that  we  are  of  God.” 
“  I  know  Him  Whom  I  trusted.”  St.  Bernard 
of  the  Middle  Ages  writes  and  sings  in  exactly 
the  same  strain.  And  Bendigo,  the  prize¬ 
fighter,  falling  under  the  saving  spell  of  Christ, 
becomes  a  transfigured  man,  and  speaks  of 
Christ  in  his  own  poor  language,  as  did  St 
Paul,  St  John,  and  St.  Bernard  in  their  richer 


192 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE 


tongue.  There  is  a  specific  Christian  experi¬ 
ence  which  makes  men  and  women  radiant, 
which  transforms  their  passions,  which  enables 
them  to  overcome  temptation,  which  renders 
them  courageous,  which  lifts  them  above  the 
depressions  of  life,  which  makes  them  more 
than  conquerors.  Every  Christian  hymn 
book  bears  witness  to  this  fundamental  fact. 
Examine  any  church  hymn  book  and  carefully 
note  the  implications  of  all  the  hymns  and  the 
personal  note  that  sounds  through  the  majority 
of  them,  and  then  say  whether  it  is  or  is  not 
true  that  Christian  experience  is  a  reality.  To 
the  witness  of  hymns  may  be  added  that  of 
Christian  biography.  Read  the  story  of  any 
great  Christian  life,  and  before  long  you  will 
inevitably  come  to  the  passage  which  describes 
a  spiritual  crisis — sometimes  called  “  conver¬ 
sion  ’’ — and  from  which  everything  worthy 
dates.  Can  it  be  that  all  biographers,  from 
St.  Augustine  downwards,  have  been  engaged 
in  a  vast  conspiracy  to  deceive  both  themselves 
and  the  world  for  which  they  wrote?  If  the 
ordinary  laws  of  evidence  are  applied  to  Chris¬ 
tian  biography,  what  does  this  universal  wit¬ 
ness  to  the  specific  Christian  experience  mean? 

Or  turn  into  any  large  mission  hall  or  Sal¬ 
vation  Army  barracks,  and  there,  in  another 
language,  the  same  story  will  be  told.  Mr, 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE  193 


Begbie,  in  Twice-Born  Men/’  gave  to  the 
world  a  collection  of  striking  testimonies  gath¬ 
ered  from  the  Salvation  Army  converts.  And 
these  roughest  of  rough  men — criminals  many 
of  them — had  one  story  to  tell — they  had  been 
redeemed  by  Jesus  Christ  and  turned  into  new 
creatures.  St.  Augustine,  the  brilliant  scholar, 
and  “  Jack  the  Terror,”  widely  separated  in 
time,  in  social  status,  and  in  intellectual  power, 
are  brought  together  in  the  common  Christian 
experience  of  the  saving  work  of  Jesus  Christ. 
All  this  is  in  the  region  of  facts.  There  can 
be  no  disputing  them.  Rationalism  has  em¬ 
ployed  every  weapon  in  its  armoury  of  malice 
against  the  facts  of  Christian  experience,  but 
all  that  remains  of  its  attack  is  a  pile  of  scrap 
iron.  Mr.  Bradlaugh  once  challenged  the  late 
Hugh  Price  Hughes  to  a  debate  on  Christianity. 
Mr.  Hughes  replied  with  alacrity.  Certainly. 
Nothing  would  be  more  pleasing  to  me;  but  as 
debates  on  conventional  lines  usually  lead  to 
nothing,  let  us  hold  a  debate  on  new  lines.  I  will 
undertake  to  bring  a  hundred  diverse  men  and 
women  on  to  the  platform  of  St.  James’s  Hall, 
who  shall  witness  to  the  saving  work  of  Christ 
in  their  lives.  You  can  cross-examine  them 
as  much  as  you  like.  But  you,  on  your  part, 
are  to  bring  one  hundred  men  and  women  who 
have  been  redeemed  from  a  sinful  life  by 


194 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE 


means  of  your  atheistic  teaching.”  Mr.  Brad- 
laugh  declined  the  offer.  He  was  a  wise  man 
— too  wise  to  risk  the  greatest  collapse  of  his 
life  in  public.  The  Christian  experience  is  too 
well  established  to  be  destroyed. 

But  Christianity  invites  all  mankind  to  this 
experience.  It  makes  no  exceptions.  It  does 
not  ask  all  men  to  express  themselves  in  the 
same  way.  It  imposes  no  yoke  of  bondage 
upon  the  mind.  It  leaves  mind  and  tempera¬ 
ment  as  free  as  God  made  them  to  be.  But 
it  says  to  all  mankind:  Differ  as  you  may  in 
national  characteristics,  in  mental  outlook,  in 
social  conventions,  you  have  all  one  common 
need — the  need  of  God.  It  belongs  to  your 
essential  humanity.  It  has  become  more  press¬ 
ing  because  of  human  sin.  There  is  no  sin 
that  has  stained  your  life  which  may  not  be 
cured — your  very  sins,  crimson,  may  become 
white  as  snow.  There  is  no  weakness  that  can¬ 
not  be  overcome,  no  hate  that  may  not  be 
changed  to  love,  no  fear  that  may  not  be  trans¬ 
figured  into  joy.  You  can  really  know  God, 
rejoice  in  Him,  be  saved  by  Him,  commune 
with  Him.  And  the  condition  is  faith  and  re¬ 
pentance — ^both.  Your  whole  nature,  as  it  is, 
placed  in  the  hands  that  were  pierced  for  you, 
will  be  remade  by  Him.  He  is  the  Saviour  of 
all,  the  Lord  of  all.” 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE  195 


Enter,  my  friends,  into  this  experience.  It 
follows  the  surrender  of  the  life  to  God.  And 
when  once  it  is  known,  it  cannot  be  fairly 
doubted.  It  will  become  the  very  life  of  the 
man. 

In  the  presence  of  conflicting  forces,  of 
strain,  of  attack,  the  man  who  has  really  en¬ 
tered  into  a  Christian  experience  will  say  with 
F.  W.  H.  Myers: 

Whoso  has  felt  the  Spirit  of  the  Highest 

Cannot  confound,  nor  doubt  Him,  nor  deny. 

Yea,  with  one  voice,  O  world,  though  thou 
deniest, 

Stand  thou  on  that  side — for  on  this  am  I. 


XIII 


THE  PRACTICAL  QUESTION— WILL 
CHRISTIANITY  WORK’’  TO-DAY? 

^  I  Thousands  of  persons  who  are  per- 
i  suaded  that  Christianity  has  a  real 
Gospel  to  preach  to  the  world  are  by 
no  means  sure  that  its  Gospel  will  “  work  ” 
in  the  modern  world.  I  have  a  letter  before 
me  in  which  the  writer — a  shrewd  man — says, 
‘‘  I  frankly  admit  that  the  Gospel  has  proved 
effective  in  the  lives  of  vast  numbers  of  in¬ 
dividuals  both  spiritually  and,  to  a  certain  ex¬ 
tent,  socially,  but  is  it  not  perfectly  obvious 
that  Christianity  has  not  been  effective  in  the 
world  as  a  whole — not  even  in  that  part  of  it 
we  call  Christendom?  It  has  not  changed  so¬ 
ciety.  It  has  not  prevented  war.  Was  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  a  great  success,  either 
religiously  or  socially?  I  express  the  feeling 
common  to  most  men  of  my  acquaintance 
when  I  say  that  while  I  regard  the  ‘  Gospel  ’ — 
as  you  term  it — as  academically  sound  and 
beautifully  ideal,  it  cannot  operate  with  any¬ 
thing  like  complete  success  in  the  world  as  we 

196 


WILL  CHEISTI ANIT Y  ^  ^  WOEK  ^  ?  197 


know  it  at  present.  You  may  say  this  is  due 
in  great  part  to  the  pointblank  refusal  of  man¬ 
kind  to  live  according  to  its  rule.  That  I  ad¬ 
mit.  But,  then,  can  we  live  according  to  its 
rule  ?  Is  it  possible,  under  modern  conditions, 
to  live  that  care-free  life  sketched  by  Christ 
and  to  proceed  upon  the  conviction  that  if  we 
seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  right¬ 
eousness  other  things  will  be  ‘  added  unto 
us '  ?  This  letter  which  has  the  merit  of 
frankness  undoubtedly  expresses  what  large 
numbers  of  people  in  our  time  feel. 

The  intellectual  difficulties  concerning  Chris¬ 
tianity  are  not  nearly  so  acute  as  the  practical 
difficulties  of  the  Gospel  in  its  social  applica¬ 
tion.  When  everything  is  reduced  to  its  sim¬ 
plest  forms,  the  real  antagonism  to  the  Gospel 
centres  itself  in  a  complete  scepticism  as  to  the 
practicability  of  our  Lord’s  word,  Seek  ye 
first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteous¬ 
ness  and  these  things  shall  be  added  to  you.” 
Men  quite  frankly  do  not  believe  this.  They 
think  that  the  life  of  simplicity  as  set  forth  by 
Jesus  may  work  very  well  in  primitive  com¬ 
munities,  but  it  cannot  work  in  a  complex  life 
like  our  own. 

One  thing  is  certain:  the  result  of  the 
secular  ”  method  of  living  has  been  wholly 
disastrous.  Life  has  become  an  unholy  scram- 


198  WILL  CHRISTIANITY  '^WORK»’? 

ble  in  which  not  always  the  best,  but  the 
strongest,  the  most  pushful,  and  the  least 
scrupulous,  have  survived/’  The  law  of  the 
jungle  has  become  the  law  of  human  life.  The 
things  that  Christ  promised  should  be 
“  added  ”  have  become  the  first  things  for  the 
majority  of  people.  Food  and  clothing  and 
shelter  are  necessities  of  human  life,  but  they 
have  entirely  filled  the  foreground  of  man’s 
ambition,  until  a  larder,  a  wardrobe,  and  a 
mansion — always  growing — ^have  come  to  be 
the  sitmmum  bonum  of  existence.  For  multi¬ 
tudes  the  main  purpose  of  life  is  to  obtain  the 
best  food,  the  best  clothing,  and  the  best  shel¬ 
ter — and  the  most  of  the  best.  But  as  all 
available  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  are  not  of 
the  best — inferior  qualities  being  almost  neces¬ 
sary — the  race  begins  as  to  who  shall  obtain 
the  best.  It  is  striking  to  observe  the  empha¬ 
sis  which  Jesus  places  upon  covetousness  as  a 
mother  sin.  He  declared  that  this  vice  was 
responsible  for  the  choking  of  the  best  things 
in  life;  that  it  was  wholly  illusive  and  that  it 
led  directly  to  most  of  the  world’s  social  evils. 

And  the  world  to-day  knows  that  He  is 
right.  The  old  way  of  living  has  broken  down. 
Say  what  we  may  about  the  part  that  bad 
politics  played  in  forcing  the  Great  War  upon 
the  world:  the  real  cause  of  that  war  was 


WILL  CHRISTIANITY  ^^WORK^’?  199 


covetousness.  Men  were  after  larders  and 
markets  and  wardrobes  and  luxuries.  There 
would  have  been  no  European  war  but  for  the 
tragic  fact  that  second  things  had  become  first 
things.  The  Bolshevists  and  the  Marxians,  in 
their  bovine  way,  are  well  aware  of  this ;  hence 
they  cry  out  for  the  destruction  of  the  system 
which  has  brought  such  misery  upon  the  world. 
But  men  who  are  neither  Bolshevists  nor 
Marxians  are  just  as  certain  that  the  world 
has  been  on  the  wrong  track,  and  they  also  are 
seeking  a  new  method  of  living,  although  it  is 
not  the  method  of  destruction.  Amid  the 
wreckage  of  the  modern  world  the  most  hope¬ 
ful  sign  we  perceive  is  the  awakening  of  so 
many  minds  to  the  real  cause  of  our  trouble: 
that  we  have  turned  from  the  way  of  Christ  as 
being  impossible  and  trodden  the  contrary 
way,  which  has  ended  in  tragedy. 

But  is  Christ’s  way  of  life  practicable f 
Where  are  the  guarantees  that  if  men  live  ac¬ 
cording  to  this  way,  and  seek  the  Kingdom 
first,  the  rest  will  be  really  “  added  ” :  that  all 
the  needs  of  life  will  be  met — and  more?  The 
only  guarantee  Jesus  gives  is  the  character  of 
God.  He  rests  everything  upon  that.  The 
Father,  He  tells  us,  is  the  source  of  all  good. 
We  have  to  depend  upon  Him  for  all  we  re¬ 
ceive.  He  it  is  who  supplies  all  our  raw  ma- 


200  WILL  CHRISTIANITY^^ WORK’’? 

terial,  without  which  we  could  make  nothing 
at  all.  Whether  we  own  or  disown  Him,  we 
are  His  pensioners.  But  He  never  betrays  us. 
He  clothes  flowers  of  the  field  and  feeds  the 
birds;  how,  then,  could  He  betray  His  own 
children  ?  He  works  for  us  by  means  of  laws. 
Obey  those  laws  and  all  will  be  well.  “  Seek 
first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added.''  That  is  the  sole  guarantee 
Jesus  gives  on  behalf  of  a  normal  and  happy 
social  State.  But  the  modern  world  does  not 
believe  it  is  good  enough.  It  seems  to  be  in¬ 
substantial,  nebulous,  unreal.  It  lacks  the  ele¬ 
ment  of  “  cash  down  ” — that  substantial  guar¬ 
antee  which  the  war  and  the  income  tax  have 
done  so  much  to  lessen.  It  introduces  that 
vaporous  thing — as  men  believe  it  to  be — faith. 
At  the  last,  therefore,  the  whole  matter  re¬ 
solves  itself  into  one  question — do  we  really 
believe  in  God  sufficiently  to  risk  our  future 
upon  the  stability  of  His  character? 

When  we  have  exhausted  all  our  logic  we 
are  compelled  to  return  to  that  simple  and 
fundamental  question  and  answer  it.  Thou¬ 
sands  of  simple  souls  do  believe  in  God  in 
this  way.  They  live  on  Christ’s  lines  and  they 
abide  in  peace.  They  are  never  betrayed. 
Every  minister  of  religion  knows  widows  and 
others  who  are  without  resources  save  in  the 


WILL  CHRISTIANITY  ^  ^  WORK  ^ » f  201 


love  and  care  of  God.  They  are  happy,  trust¬ 
ful  people,  who  do  their  best  and  leave  the 
rest  with  God,  and  who  do  in  all  their  thoughts 
set  the  Kingdom  of  God  first.  And  the  other 
things  are  always  “  added.’’  To  some  extent 
the  old  miracle  of  the  unemptied  barrel  and  the 
undrained  cruse  of  oil  is  continued  in  their 
experience.  How  the  provision  is  made  is 
somewhat  of  a  mystery,  but  ask  people  of  this 
order  whether  it  be  not  true  that  their  faith 
has  never  been  betrayed!  The  community, 
however,  does  not  believe  in  God  in  this  sim¬ 
ple  way.  Human  life  is  not  organized  on 
Christ’s  lines,  hence  it  is  not  at  peace.  It  has 
taken  another  way,  with  the  fatal  results  that 
are  apparent  to  all. 

If  we  ask,  then,  whether  the  Gospel  will 
**  work  ”  in  the  modern  world,  the  answer  is. 
Certainly,  if  men  will  give  it  its  opportunity; 
but  so  long  as  they  place  the  emphasis  on  the 
wrong  things  and  put  second  things  in  the 
first  place  it  cannot  work,  and  its  beneficent 
programme  is  bound  to  remain  unfulfilled  so 
far  as  society  is  concerned.  For  the  Gospel 
does  not  work  magically;  it  can  only  work 
morally.  The  life  principle  it  conveys  becomes 
fruitful  only  in  a  congenial  soil.  If  we  ask 
why  men  hesitate  to  receive  it  and  to  live  by 
it,  the  answer  is  that  they  are  afraid.  Fear  is 


202  WILL  CHRISTIANITY  ‘‘WORK^^? 


at  the  bottom  of  most  of  our  social  troubles. 
Nations  arm  against  each  other  because  of 
fear.  Men  hurry  to  be  rich  because  of  fear. 
The  whole  system  of  grab  which  urges  men 
to  get  as  much  of  the  world’s  goods  as  they 
can  and  as  soon  as  they  can  is  based  upon  fear 
— fear  that  if  they  fail  there  will  be  nothing 
left  for  them  at  the  end.  And  Christ  presses 
the  contrary  of  all  that.  He  urges  the  child’s 
trust  and  condemns  the  beast’s  leap.  Trust 
God,  He  says.  Live  according  to  His  law. 
Put  His  Kingdom  first.  Reduce  all  life  to  a 
single  service.  Refuse  to  be  torn  between 
mammon  and  God.  Do  this  and  all  the  parts 
of  life,  personal  and  social,  will  fall  into  place. 
Society  will  then  be  organized  on  the  lines  of 
a  Father’s  Kingdom  and  not  on  the  lines  of  an 
African  jungle.  That  great  bogey,  fear,  will 
vanish  in  the  broad  light  of  divinely  fraternal 
love.  Inequalities  will  remain,  but  all  will  be 
happy,  since  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  Father 
there  can  be  no  room  for  tyrannies,  trickeries, 
and  wars. 

A  counsel  of  perfection,  people  reply,  with 
a  shrug  of  the  shoulder.  But  is  it?  We  have 
had  the  counsel  of  destruction;  what  is  there 
left  for  us  but  to  try  Christ’s  way  or  return, 
like  very  fools,  to  the  blasted  path  upon  which 
our  feet  have  been  burned?  It  is  a  counsel 


WILL  CHRISTIANITY  ^^WORK’’?  203 


of  perfection,  if  you  like,  to  this  extent:  that 
it  can  never  completely  operate  socially  until 
the  world  accepts  it.  We  are  cynically  re¬ 
minded  that  we  “  cannot  change  human  na¬ 
ture.”  Well,  is  that  quite  so  certain?  It  has 
been  changed  a  good  deal  since  the  beginning, 
and  all  the  change  for  good  has  been  in  the 
direction  of  Christ.  The  beast  is  dying  and 
the  child  is  emerging.  Miraculous  changes 
have  occurred  in  individuals.  Lives,  tigerish 
and  hurtful,  have  under  Christ  been  trans¬ 
formed  completely.  And  what  is  possible  for 
the  individual  is  possible  for  the  race. 

One  thing  is  certain:  that  a  new  vision  is 
dawning  upon  the  minds  of  millions  of  people 
of  a  new  society  which  answers  completely 
to  our  Lord’s  conception  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  The  Church  has  an  unparalleled  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  proclaiming  anew  her  Gospel  in  all 
its  completeness,  and  of  pressing  home  upon 
men  this  new  point  that  the  complete  accept¬ 
ance  of  the  Gospel  carries  with  it  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  that  very  social  order  of  which  the 
best  people  are  dreaming;  while  its  rejection 
is  not  only  a  refusal  to  accept  a  spiritual  boon, 
it  is  a  definite  and  deliberate  wound  inflicted 
upon  society,  since  it  hinders  the  only  means 
of  true  progress.  There  has  never  been  such 
an  occasion  for  a  grand  appeal  on  behalf  of 


204  WILL  CHRISTIANITY  ^^WORK”? 


Christ  as  to-day.  But  to  give  it  effect  the  meff 
who  make  it  must  themselves  live  simply  and 
make  it  clear  that  in  their  own  lives  the  King¬ 
dom  comes  first.  These  are  the  adventurers 
for  God,  and  in  due  time  they  will  win 
through. 


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this  most  vital  matter.  And  this  task  the  author  has  well 
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JOHN  HENRY  JOWETT,D.D, 

God  Our  Contemporary 

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Minister  of  the  First  Congregational  Church, 

Detroit,  Michigan. 

The  Undiscovered  Country  $1.50. 

A  group  of  addresses  marked  by  distinction  of  style 
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HELPFUL  SERMONS 


JAMES L  VANCE,  D.D.,  LLP. 

Pastor  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Nashville,  Tenn, 

In  the  Breaking  of  the  Bread 

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of  expression.” — United  Presbyterian. 


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. . . .  Church,  Louisville,  Ky, 

The  Rock  That  Is  Higher 

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An  unusually  successful  volume  of  discourses  of  which 
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experience .  As  I  have  read  it  I  have  found  my 

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great  vigor  of  thought  he  has  added  the  winged  power  of 
an  imagination  essentially  poetic. 


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Author  of  "The  Sabbatic  Question,"  "The  God  of  War,"  etc. 

Radiant  Hopefulness 

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the  world  has  passed  in  recent  vears,  with  which  man¬ 
kind  still  finds  Itself  faced.  In  this  volume  of  addresses. 
Dr.  Taylor  points  the  way  to  comfort  amid  confusion,  to 
peaceful  harborage  amid  the  prevailing  storm. 


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